Preclinical transmission of prions by blood transfusion is influenced by donor genotype and route of infection

• Published in: PLoS pathogens 2021-02, Vol.17 (2), p.e1009276
• Main Authors: Salamat, M Khalid F, Blanco, A Richard Alejo, McCutcheon, Sandra, Tan, Kyle B C, Stewart, Paula, Brown, Helen, Smith, Allister, de Wolf, Christopher, Groschup, Martin H, Becher, Dietmar, Andréoletti, Olivier, Turner, Marc, Manson, Jean C, Houston, E Fiona
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal models; Biology and Life Sciences; Blood; Blood & organ donations; Blood cells; Blood platelets; Blood products; Blood transfusion; Blood transfusions; Bovine spongiform encephalopathy; BSE; Cattle; Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease; Epidemiology; Genotype & phenotype; Genotypes; Incubation; Infections; Infectivity; Kuru; Leukocytes; Life Sciences; Medicine and Health Sciences; Plasma; Prion protein; Prions; Protein folding; Safety measures; Sheep; Transfusion; White blood cells
• ISSN: 1553-7374; 1553-7366; 1553-7374
• DOI: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PPAT.1009276

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is a human prion disease resulting from zoonotic transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Documented cases of vCJD transmission by blood transfusion necessitate on-going risk reduction measures to protect blood supplies, such as leucodepletion (removal of white blood cells, WBCs). This study set out to determine the risks of prion transmission by transfusion of labile blood components (red blood cells, platelets, plasma) commonly used in human medicine, and the effectiveness of leucodepletion in preventing infection, using BSE-infected sheep as a model. All components were capable of transmitting prion disease when donors were in the preclinical phase of infection, with the highest rates of infection in recipients of whole blood and buffy coat, and the lowest in recipients of plasma. Leucodepletion of components (