Dried blood spot self-sampling at home is a feasible technique for hepatitis C RNA detection

To facilitate HCV diagnosis, we developed an HCV-RNA testing service, which involved home-sampled dried blood spots (DBS). The main objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of self-sampling at home. Furthermore, to optimise the processing of DBS samples for RNA detection, we evaluated...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2020-04, Vol.15 (4), p.e0231385-e0231385
Main Authors: Prinsenberg, Tamara, Rebers, Sjoerd, Boyd, Anders, Zuure, Freke, Prins, Maria, van der Valk, Marc, Schinkel, Janke
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biology and Life Sciences
Blood
Buffers
Correlation
Disease prevention
Elution
Evaluation
Feasibility
Gays & lesbians
Health care
Health services
Hepatitis
Hepatitis C
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus
Infections
Infectious diseases
Internal medicine
Laboratories
Medicine and Health Sciences
Mens health
People and Places
Public health
Questionnaires
Research and Analysis Methods
Ribonucleic acid
RNA
Sampling
Stability analysis
Studies
Viral infections
Virology
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Summary:To facilitate HCV diagnosis, we developed an HCV-RNA testing service, which involved home-sampled dried blood spots (DBS). The main objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of self-sampling at home. Furthermore, to optimise the processing of DBS samples for RNA detection, we evaluated two elution buffers: phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and L6-buffer. 27 HCV-RNA and 12 HIV-1 RNA positive patients were included. Laboratory spotted DBS (LabDBS) were made by a technician from blood samples drawn at inclusion. Patients received a DBS home-sampling kit and were requested to return their self-sampled DBS (ssDBS) by mail. We compared the RNA load of PBS and L6-eluted labDBS, and of L6-eluted ssDBS, L6-eluted labDBS and plasma. LabDBS load measurements were repeated after 7-13 and 14-21 days to evaluate RNA stability. All 39 plasma samples provided quantifiable RNA loads. In 1/39 labDBS sample, RNA could not be detected (plasma HCV load: 2.98 log10 IU/ml). L6-eluted samples gave a 0.7 log10 and 0.6 log10 higher viral load for HCV and HIV-1 respectively, compared to PBS-eluted samples. Strong correlations were found between labDBS and ssDBS HCV RNA (r = 0.833; mean difference 0.3 log10 IU/mL) and HIV-1 RNA results (r = 0.857; mean difference 0.1 log10 copies/mL). Correlations between labDBS and plasma values were high for HCV (r = 0.958) and HIV-1 (r = 0.844). RNA loads in DBS remained stable over 21 days. Our study demonstrates that self-sampling dried blood spots at home is a feasible strategy for the detection of HCV and HIV-1 RNA. This could facilitate one-step diagnostics and treatment monitoring in communities with high HCV prevalence.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0231385