All clinically-relevant blood components transmit prion disease following a single blood transfusion: a sheep model of vCJD

Variant CJD (vCJD) is an incurable, infectious human disease, likely arising from the consumption of BSE-contaminated meat products. Whilst the epidemic appears to be waning, there is much concern that vCJD infection may be perpetuated in humans by the transfusion of contaminated blood products. Sin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2011-08, Vol.6 (8), p.e23169-e23169
Main Authors: McCutcheon, Sandra, Alejo Blanco, Anthony Richard, Houston, E Fiona, de Wolf, Christopher, Tan, Boon Chin, Smith, Antony, Groschup, Martin H, Hunter, Nora, Hornsey, Valerie S, MacGregor, Ian R, Prowse, Christopher V, Turner, Marc, Manson, Jean C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biological products
Blood
Blood Component Transfusion - adverse effects
Blood Component Transfusion - veterinary
Blood Donors
Blood transfusion
Blood transfusions
Blood-brain barrier
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy
Brain - metabolism
Brain - pathology
BSE
Cattle
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome - blood
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome - etiology
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome - transmission
Disease control
Disease Models, Animal
Disease transmission
Encephalopathy, Bovine Spongiform - blood
Encephalopathy, Bovine Spongiform - transmission
Epidemics
Erythrocyte Transfusion - adverse effects
Erythrocyte Transfusion - veterinary
Genotype & phenotype
Humans
Immunoblotting
Immunohistochemistry
Infections
Infectivity
Laboratories
Leukocyte Reduction Procedures
Meat
Meat products
Medicine
Pathogenesis
Platelet Transfusion - adverse effects
Platelet Transfusion - veterinary
Platelets
Prion Diseases - blood
Prion Diseases - etiology
Prion Diseases - transmission
Proteins
PrPSc Proteins - analysis
Sheep
Spinal cord
Spleen
Transfusion
Vectors
Veterinary medicine
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Description
Summary:Variant CJD (vCJD) is an incurable, infectious human disease, likely arising from the consumption of BSE-contaminated meat products. Whilst the epidemic appears to be waning, there is much concern that vCJD infection may be perpetuated in humans by the transfusion of contaminated blood products. Since 2004, several cases of transfusion-associated vCJD transmission have been reported and linked to blood collected from pre-clinically affected donors. Using an animal model in which the disease manifested resembles that of humans affected with vCJD, we examined which blood components used in human medicine are likely to pose the greatest risk of transmitting vCJD via transfusion. We collected two full units of blood from BSE-infected donor animals during the pre-clinical phase of infection. Using methods employed by transfusion services we prepared red cell concentrates, plasma and platelets units (including leucoreduced equivalents). Following transfusion, we showed that all components contain sufficient levels of infectivity to cause disease following only a single transfusion and also that leucoreduction did not prevent disease transmission. These data suggest that all blood components are vectors for prion disease transmission, and highlight the importance of multiple control measures to minimise the risk of human to human transmission of vCJD by blood transfusion.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0023169