The study results were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology. Despite reductions in the risk of pathogen transmission by blood transfusion, there remains a residual risk of disease transmission from known and as-yet undiscovered pathogens. Use of viral inactivating agents represents one potential avenue to reducing this risk. However, viral inactivation presents a number of challenges, notably to preserve red blood cell function. Our study indicated that after 28 days of storage, treated cells met all the requirements for therapeutically useful red blood cells.
Additional studies are ongoing to evaluate red blood cell viability for more extended periods.
The randomized crossover study involved 12 healthy adults. Treated cells were stored at 4 degrees Celsius for 28 days, followed by a procedure to remove the viral inactivating compound from the blood. Control red blood cell units were prepared and stored as conventional leukoreduced additive system red blood cells. The stored, treated blood was then analyzed for measures of viability and metabolic activity, and subsequently labeled with a radioactive tracer and reinfused into the subjects. The researchers found that recovery of the treated red blood cells after 24 hours was comparable to that of the control units.