OCT. 10–WATERTOWN, MA –V.I. Technologies, Inc. (Vitex), a biotechnology company specializing in pathogen removal in blood, is touting a pre-clinical study that says its Inactine PEN110 treatment has the potential to replace gamma-irradiation, the most common treatment for transfusion-associated graft-versus-host-disease (TAGVHD).
The pre-clinical studies also suggest the potential of the Inactine PEN110 treatment to prevent alloimmunization, which occurs when a person who has repeated blood transfusions develops antibodies against the donated blood.
The pre-clinical studies, published in the October 4th-issue of the Journal of the American Association of Blood Banks, Transfusion, shows that Inactine is as effective as gamma-irradiation in the functional inactivation of white blood cells in non-leuko-reduced red blood cell units.
The in vitro and in vivo (animal) studies also indicate that the treatment is effective in preventing TAGVHD following transfusion, a serious complication in transfusion medicine whereby the cells from a tissue or organ transplant mount an attack against the recipients’ own immune system.
Gamma-irradiation is a method used to inactivate lymphocytes in red blood cell units and platelets and is currently the most common treatment of blood products to prevent TAGVHD.
However, these new studies conducted in collaboration with Loren Fast, of Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital, indicate that Inactine was as effective as gamma irradiation at inhibiting the proliferation of lymphocytes in red blood cell units, and the Inactine may be even more effective than gamma- irradiation in functionally inactivating the white blood cells by rapidly inducing fragmentation of the cellular DNA.
“Functional lymphocytes in blood products can result in TAGVHD, a severe response that almost always results in death within thirty days,” says Fast, Ph.D., associate professor of medicine in Brown’s Division of Hematology/Oncology. “The results of these pre-clinical studies are promising and show that Inactine may be a viable alternative to gamma-irradiation in inhibiting and inactivating harmful lymphocytes present in red blood cell units.”
John R. Barr, president and chief executive of Vitex, says lymphocytes are a significant challenge in transfusion medicine.
“They are found in every unit of red blood cells, and it is becoming recognized that lymphocytes contaminating red blood cells may have adverse effects including alloimmunization, immunosuppression, disease transmission and TAGVHD,” he adds. “Inactine treatment can potentially offer a straightforward, single step alternative to current treatment methods used to address the physical and immunological removal of lymphocytes. “