The quality and quantity of compounds affected by viral inactivation methods in dried blood spots

Abstract

Abstract Objectives The aim is to evaluate the effect of viral inactivation methods on the quality and quantity of compounds in dried blood spots (DBS). Methods Three effective and common inactivation methods were selected via the literature search, including: heating at 56 °C for 30 min, irradiation with UVC for 30 min, and surface wetting with 70 % ethanol. The concentration and clinical predicting significance of hormones, amino acids, and acylcarnitines from DBS were assessed, and the quality and quantity of extracted deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from DBS were evaluated. Results Compared to control, we found that there was no significant difference on hormones concentration in the DBS treated by heating at 56 °C for 30 min (thyroid stimulating hormone p=0.36, 17-hydroxyprogesterone p=0.52). And heating at 56 °C for 30 min had a minimal changed coefficient of variation on the concentration of amino acids and acylcarnitines. All three inactivation methods slightly changed the yield of DNA extraction, but did not affect the quality of the DNA. Importantly, the three inactivation methods wouldn’t change the clinical predicting significance of above-compounds mostly, especially heating at 56 °C for 30 min. Conclusions Considering the minimal effect on the quality and quantity of various compounds, the contaminated DBS could be pretreated by the three inactivation methods, as temporary emergency inactivation methods, especially heating at 56 °C for 30 min.