title: Inactivation of cytomegalovirus in platelet concentrates using Helinx technology.
abstract: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in immunocompromised patients may result in severe morbidity and mortality. The standard of care for these patients is the use of CMV-seronegative blood components. Alternatively, filtered, leukocyte-reduced blood components have been used. However, neither approach completely prevented transfusion-associated CMV infection in the recipients. The Helinx technology (Cerus Corp, Concord, CA) utilizing amotosalen hydrochloride (HCl) (S-59) and long-wavelength ultraviolet A (UVA) light, was developed to enhance the safety of platelet transfusion. The combination of 150 micromol/L of S-59 and a 3 J/cm2 UVA treatment inactivated greater than 10(5.9 +/- 0.3) plaque-forming units (pfus) per milliliter of CMV in full-sized therapeutic platelet concentrates. The efficacy margin of this treatment is greater than 100-fold. In an immunocompromised in vivo murine transfusion model, mice transfused with platelets contaminated with murine CMV (MCMV)-infected splenocytes became MCMV-positive, exhibited histologic evidence of CMV disease, and died. Mice transfused with Helinx-treated platelets contaminated with MCMV-infected splenocytes prior to treatment remained MCMV-negative with no histologic evidence of CMV disease and remained healthy. These results demonstrated that Helinx treatment of MCMV-contaminated platelet concentrates prevented MCMV infection by platelet transfusion in immunodeficient animals. In conclusion, Helinx technology offers a potential alternative to selection of CMV-seronegative units and to leukocyte-reduction filtration as a means to decrease the risk of transfusion-acquired CMV infection.
authors.affiliation: Biological Research Division, Cerus Corporation, Concord, CA 94520, USA.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001792:Blood Platelets / Q000821:virology*; D003587:Cytomegalovirus / Q000187:drug effects*; D003586:Cytomegalovirus Infections / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000635:transmission; D005363:Ficusin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011564:Furocoumarins; D006801:Humans; D010778:Photochemotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D017319:Photosensitizing Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D017713:Platelet Transfusion / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000592:standards; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays
chemical_list: D011564:Furocoumarins; D017319:Photosensitizing Agents; C118577:amotosalen; D005363:Ficusin