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Assessment of prion reduction filters in decreasing infectivity of ultracentrifuged 263 K scrapie‐infected brain homogenates in “spiked” human blood and red blood cells
Author(s) -
Cardone Franco,
SowemimoCoker Samuel,
AbdelHaq Hanin,
Sbriccoli Marco,
Graziano Silvia,
Valanzano Angelina,
Berardi Vito Angelo,
Galeno Roberta,
Puopolo Maria,
Pocchiari Maurizio
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
transfusion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.045
H-Index - 132
eISSN - 1537-2995
pISSN - 0041-1132
DOI - 10.1111/trf.12369
Subject(s) - infectivity , scrapie , hamster , virology , whole blood , clearance , mesocricetus , blood transfusion , bioassay , biology , chemistry , medicine , immunology , microbiology and biotechnology , virus , prion protein , pathology , disease , genetics , urology
Background The safety of red blood cells ( RBCs ) is of concern because of the occurrence of four transfusion‐transmitted variant C reutzfeldt‐ J akob disease ( vCJD ) cases in the United Kingdom. The absence of validated screening tests requires the use of procedures to remove prions from blood to minimize the risk of transmission. These procedures must be validated using infectious prions in a form that is as close as possible to one in blood. Study Design and Methods Units of human whole blood ( WB ) and RBCs were spiked with high‐speed supernatants of 263 K scrapie‐infected hamster brain homogenates. Spiked samples were leukoreduced and then passed through prion‐removing filters ( P all Corporation). In another experiment, RBCs from 263 K scrapie‐infected hamsters were treated as above, and residual infectivity was measured by bioassay. Results The overall removal of infectivity by the filters from prion‐spiked WB and RBCs was approximately two orders of magnitude. No infectivity was detected in filtered hamster RBCs endogenously infected with scrapie. Conclusion The use of prion‐removing filters may help to reduce the risk of transfusion‐transmitted vCJD . To avoid overestimation of prion removal efficiency in validation studies, it may be more appropriate to use supernates from ultracentrifugation of scrapie‐infected hamster brain homogenate rather than the current standard brain homogenates.