INACTIVATION OF VIRUSES IN FRESH-FROZEN PLASMA

Methylene blue (MB) or solvent/detergent (SD) treatment is used for th e inactivation of lipid-enveloped viruses in plasma. One important cha racteristic of the SD treatment is the necessity to pool plasma from d ifferent donors, thus inducing the risk of spreading infectious partic les. MB treatment can be applied to single-donor plasma, causing no gr eater infectious risk than conventional fresh-frozen plasma (FFP). How ever, the virucidal efficacy of the SD method regarding HIV, HBV and H CV has been significantly better examined and proven than the MB treat ment. Most of the therapeutic constituents of both plasma products are weil maintained; coagulation factors decrease by roughly 5-20%. SD tr eatment reduces protein S and alpha2-antiplasmin by approximately 40%, whereas MB treatment leads to a significant photooxidative alteration of fibrinogen with a disturbance of fibrin polymerization. As current studies show, the use of either plasma product is obviously not limit ed by acute or chronic toxicity. Several studies are in progress to ev aluate the relevance of alterations in FFP quality which may affect th e clinical efficacy of virus-inactivated plasma.