Patent ID: 7678538

Claim:
A method for disinfecting a biological fluid containing red blood cells comprising: (a) creating a mixture of the biological fluid and a nucleic acid binding, cell-membrane-permeable, asymmetric cyanine dye; (b) irradiating the resulting mixture to achieve a viral inactivation capacity corresponding to at least about 7 Log 10 VSV; and (c) assaying the biological fluid for a pathogen; wherein the asymmetric cyanine dye has the structure of Formula I: where: R 1 , R 2 , and R 3 are saturated or unsaturated hydrocarbons of C 6 or fewer; R 4 and R 5 are the same or different and are selected from saturated or unsaturated hydrocarbons, acyl, aryl, alcohol, ester, aldehyde, ketone and amine of C 4 or fewer, any of which may be further substituted with a halogen, or R 4 and/or R 5 is itself a halogen; n is 0-5; m is 0-4; p is 0-4; and the ring W is a fused, bicyclic heteroaryl moiety.