NOV. 4–EAST HILLS, N.Y, –Infectious prions can now be removed from blood prior to a transfusion according to a new study presented today at the American Association of Blood Banks annual meeting.
Infectious prions are the cause of fatal degenerative diseases including variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), the human form of “mad cow disease.” The study was conducted with the New York State Institute for Basic Research.
The study evaluated a prototype leukocyte (white blood cell) reduction filter containing new proprietary media in removing infectious prions, specifically from scrapie-infected red blood cell concentrates.
The filtered blood was injected into a test group and non-filtered blood into a control group of hamsters. The results show that the new filter effectively reduces infectious prions from red blood cell concentrates below the limit of detection of the Western blot assay. None of the hamsters injected with the filtered red cell concentrates developed the disease.
The latest study was conducted and presented by Samuel Coker, technical director of Pall Corp. It confirms earlier laboratory results presented at the VIII European Congress of the International Society of Blood Transfusion held in Istanbul, Turkey.
“The use of this revolutionary filter technology may one day protect patients from the transmission of infectious prions,” Coker says. “Using a filtration approach to reduce prions in blood may be a practical way to increase transfusion safety since leukocyte filtration is already a routine practice in most blood centers and hospitals around the world. The new filter technology combines leukocyte filtration with prion removal in one small device.”
Additional in vitro and in vivo animal studies with the prototype filter are ongoing. Pall’s prion reduction technology also holds promise for its potential to detect prions in blood.
“Currently there is no sensitive blood screening test that can be used on live animals or people. The ability to detect prions in blood will enable early identification of infected animals before they manifest clinical signs or symptoms of disease and prior to their use as a food source,” Dr. Coker said. “Helping ensure the safety of the food supply can have a major impact on protecting the public from this insidious and fatal disease.”
Pall’s Chairman and CEO, Eric Krasnoff lauded researchers for the advancement of blood safety. Pall plans on submitting applications to a number of regulatory authorities for approval to market this new technology.
Prion diseases are fatal, neurodegenerative diseases that affect both humans and animals including scrapie in sheep, bovine spongiform encephalopathy and vCJD in humans. Concerns about the possible transmission of prions through donor blood have arisen due to the incidence of the disease, new animal data and questions about transmission from infected individuals who have no clinical symptoms of the disease.
It is estimated that the incubation period (prior to clinical symptoms) for vCJD may be anywhere between 10 to 20 years. Since the first human case of vCJD was identified in 1994, there have been 153 confirmed cases in Europe, U.S., Canada and Hong Kong with the vast majority (142) in the United Kingdom.