Possible removal of prion agents from blood products during the manufacturing process

Abstract

Blood products prepared from human blood theoretically risk contamination with infectious pathogens. Since recent reports now confirm the likely transmission of pathogenic prions through blood transfusion, effective measures to prevent transmission are required globally, although the prevalence of variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease outside of the UK is extremely low. Many studies evaluating the manufacturing process have been conducted for the potential removal of the prion protein from plasma derivatives. In this review, we discuss the possibility of removing prions via several processing steps, especially depth and virus-removal filtration. Through a discussion of the limitations and issues associated with such studies, we hope our review will be of help for better study design in the future.