Heat sensitivity of a SARS-associated coronavirus introduced into plasma products.
OBJECTIVE
Various measures to inactivate/remove viruses have been implemented for manufacturing plasma-derived products. Here, we examined the heat inactivation ability of an agent of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), SARS coronavirus (CoV).


METHODS
The Frankfurt-1 strain of SARS-CoV was incorporated in manufacturing processes of several products by using samples collected immediately before liquid heat treatment at 60 degrees C.


RESULTS
SARS-CoV was easily inactivated by this treatment for 60 min in all in-process samples. However, the different composition of the tested samples affected the heat sensitivity of the virus strain: the infectivity of the virus in Antithrombin III preparation still remained after heating for 30 min at 60 degrees C.


CONCLUSIONS
If by rare chance SARS-CoV contaminates source plasma, there should be no or only minor risk of this virus infection, due to sufficient inactivation by the 60 degrees C 10 h liquid heating step, although we must pay attention to the composition used for blood product preparation.
Yunoki
M
M
Department of Virology, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan. yunoki.mikihiro@mk.m-pharma.co.jp
Urayama
T
T
Yamamoto
I
I
Abe
S
S
Ikuta
K
K
D001769:Blood / Q000821:virology*; D001803:Blood Transfusion / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D045473:Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus; D013242:Sterilization / Q000379:methods*; D038301:Virus Inactivation