Abstracts of the 23rd Regional Congress of the International Society of 
Blood Transfusion, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, June 2-5, 2013 Oral Abstracts 
Oral Abstracts (pages 1–64) Article first published online: 20 MAY 2013 | DOI: 
10.1111/vox.12047
1D-H08-02
CURRENT PERSPECTIVES IN TRANSFUSION-TRANSMITTED INFECTIOUS DISEASES: 
EMERGING AND IMPORTED INFECTIONS, INCLUDING PARASITES 
Stramer SL
American Red Cross, Gaithersburg, MD, United States of America
Background: In August 2009, a group from the AABB (Stramer et al., 
Transfusion 2009;99:1S-29S, Emerging Infectious Disease Agents and their 
Potential Threat to Transfusion Safety; http://www.aabb.org/resources/bct/eid/Pages/default.aspx) 
published a Supplement to Transfusion that reviewed the definition and 
background of emerging infectious disease (EID) agents that pose a real or 
theoretical threat to transfusion safety, but for which an existing effective 
intervention is lacking. The necessary attributes for transfusion transmission 
were outlined including: presence of the agent in blood during an asymptomatic 
phase in the donor, the agent’s survival/ persistence in blood during 
processing/storage, and lastly that the agent must be recognized as responsible 
for a clinically apparent outcome in at least a proportion of recipients who 
become infected. Without these attributes, agents are not considered as a 
transfusion-transmission threat and were excluded. Sixty-eight such agents were 
identified with enough evidence/likelihood of transfusion transmission (e.g. 
blood phase) and potential for clinical disease to warrant further 
consideration. In the Supplement, Fact Sheets (FS) were published providing 
information on: agent classification; background on the disease agent’s 
importance; the clinical syndromes/ diseases caused; transmission modes 
(including vectors/reservoirs); likelihood of transfusion transmission, and if 
proven to be transfusion transmitted, information on known cases; the 
feasibility and predicted success of interventions that could be used donor 
screening (questioning) and tests available for diagnostics or that could be 
adapted for donor screening; and finally, the efficacy, if known, of 
inactivation methods for plasma-derived products. The Supplement also included a 
separate section on pathogen reduction technologies for all blood components 
using published data. 
Agents were prioritized relative to their 
scientific/epidemiologic threat as well as their perceived threat to the 
community including concerns expressed by the regulators of blood. 
Agents given 
the highest priority due to a known transfusiontransmission threat and 
severe/fatal disease in recipients were the vCJD prion, dengue viruses and the 
obligate red-cell parasite that causes babesiosis (B. microti and related 
babesia). 
Although the focus of the Supplement was towards the United States and 
Canada, many of the agents (and the process) are applicable worldwide. Next 
steps: Since the publication of the Supplement, five new FSs (yellow fever 
viruses-including vaccine breakthrough infections, miscellaneous arboviruses, 
XMRV-including a comprehensive table of published literature, and human 
parvoviruses/ bocaviruses other than B19) were added and 11 existing FSs updated 
(babesia, bartonella, chronic wasting disease-CWD, human prions other than vCJD, 
vCJD, Coxiella burnetii-the agent of Q fever, dengue viruses, HEV, Japanese 
encephalitis- JE complex, tick-borne encephalitis viruses-TBEV, and human 
parvovirus B19). Also, tables were released outlining pathogen reduction 
clinical trials/results (published) and availability/commercial routine use of 
such technologies by country for platelets, plasma, red cells and whole blood. 
Of necessity, the list of EID agents is not, and can never be, exhaustive due to 
the nature of emergence. We recognized that a system of assessing the 
risk/threat of EIDs for their potential impact on blood safety and availability 
must include a process for monitoring, identification, evaluation, estimating 
severity, risk assessments and intervention development. Thus, we are now 
developing a ‘toolkit’ containing the necessary ‘tools’ from EID monitoring 
(horizon scanning) to validation/effectiveness evaluations of interventions. Our 
goal is, ‘to develop a systematic approach to risk assessment and intervention 
development for the impact of emerging infectious upon blood safety in North 
America. The system is primarily intended to educate and advise AABB members 
about risks and interventions in a timely and accurate fashion. Secondary 
audiences include North American blood systems, blood services and transfusion 
services’. Certainly this toolkit may be adapted to the needs of ISBT members. 
Conclusions: The process and final product (toolkit) including methods to 
monitor EID agent emergence, identification/recognition of a 
transfusion-transmission threat, methods for quantitative risk assessments, and 
the appropriate management of such threats should be considered for 
implementation by all blood systems. 
3B-PL6
EVALUATION OF NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES AS A THREAT TO THE BLOOD 
SUPPLY
Edgren G1,2 1Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, 
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden 2Department of Hematology, Karolinska 
University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
Background: During recent years, evidence has been accumulating that 
protein misfolding is central in the causation of a range of neurodegenerative 
disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). 
Considering for example AD, where one of the hallmark features is the 
aggregation of aberrantly misfolded proteins in the brain, which seems to 
propagate through the brain in an infectionlike process. Similar observations 
have been made for Parkinson’s disease, where intrastriatal inoculation of 
misfolded a-Synuclein – the principal component of Lewy bodies – initiates 
Parkinson-like neurodegeneration in mice. Similarities with prion diseases have 
been noted. This is especially disconcerting in light of evidence that variant 
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), which could also be characterized as a 
misfolded protein disease, is transfusion transmittable in sheep – even with 
blood taken during the symptom free phase of infection – and might have been 
transmitted by transfusions in humans. As such, the possibility of transfusion 
transmission of several neurodegenerative disorders is a relevant concern. Aims: 
To investigate the possible consequences for the blood supply, we assessed the 
occurrence of a selected range of neurodegenerative diseases in Scandinavian 
blood donors and possible transfusion transmission of AD.
Methods: The analyses were all based on the Scandinavian donations and 
transfusions (SCANDAT) database which records the entire computerized blood 
donation and transfusion history in Sweden and Denmark. We identified all blood 
donors who had performed at least one whole blood, plasma or platelet donation 
between 1968 and 2002, and their respective transfusion recipients. Data on 
donors and transfused patients was linked with national inpatient and cause of 
death registers to ascertain the occurrence of AD, PD, Amyotrophic lateral 
sclerosis (ALS) and Dementia of any type. The probability that a particular 
donation was made by a donor who later developed one of these disorders within 
10, 20 or 25 years, was estimated as cumulative incidences using the 
Kaplan–Meier method. Follow-up was extended until death, emigration or end of 
follow-up. We also investigated possible transmission of AD by comparing the 
incidence of AD in recipients of blood from donors who went on to develop AD and 
recipients of blood from donors who did not develop AD. Transmission analyses 
were adjusted for necessary confounding factors.
Results: In all, we included 1.1 million blood donors, followed over 13 
million person years. A total of 730 donors developed AD, 827 PD, 338 ALS and 
2418 Dementia. The probability that a donation was made by a donor who developed 
AD within 10, 20 and 25 years was 0.03%, 0.19% and 0.45%. For PD, probabilities 
were 0.03%, 0.22% and 0.45%, and for ALS, 0.02%, 0.07%, and 0.11%. For Dementia, 
estimates were 0.08%, 0.63%, and 1.44%. Finally, there was no evidence of AD 
transmission (relative risk, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.78–1.28)
Conclusions: Even when considering latencies as long as 25 years, very few 
donations are made by donors who go on to develop a neurodegenerative disease. 
Importantly, we see no association between AD occurrence in donors and their 
respective recipients, indicating that such transmission is unlikely. 
Donor Health and Safey – Infectious Uncertainties 
3D-S26-01
AN AMPLIFICATION ASSAY FOR THE PRESYMPTOMATIC DETECTION OF PRION IN BLOOD 
Segarra C1, Bougard D1, Beringue V2 and Coste J1 1Etablissement Francais du 
Sang Pyr en ees-M editerran ee R&D TransDiag, Montpellier, France 2UR892 
VIM, Institut National de Recherche Agronomique, Jouy-en-Josas, France 
Background: Prion diseases or Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies 
(TSEs) are neurodegenerative diseases including the variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob 
disease (vCJD) in humans. The central event of these diseases would be the 
conformational change of a normal cellular protein PrPC into an infectious form 
PrPTSE. It is now evident that TSEs are transmissible by blood transfusion and 
this has raised concerns that a reservoir of infectious asymptomatic people 
could exist in the blood donor population. Until now, no screening test could 
detect the infectious agent in blood before the onset of clinical signs of 
disease. 
Aims: The objective of this study is to develop a sensitive and specific 
test that enables the detection of PrPTSE in the blood during the presymptomatic 
phase of TSE. 
Methods: The detection assay comprises three major steps: (i) a 
ligand-coated bead pre-analytical step in order to concentrate PrPTSE from the 
different blood components and to remove inhibitory factors which can interfere 
in the amplification; (ii) a PrPTSE amplification by serial PMCA using 
transgenic mouse brain homogenate as substrate and (iii) a specific detection of 
the amplified PrPTSE by immuno-blotting after partial proteinase K digestion. 
The sample volume has been optimized for 500 ll of plasma and for 25–50 ll of 
buffy-coat. Whole blood samples from infected sheep collected during preclinical 
and clinical phases of scrapie were processed in buffy-coat, white blood cells 
(WBC) and plasma. 
Results: PMCA assay allowed detection of PrPTSE in: (i) the WBC of four 
sheep at the acute phase of scrapie with a 100% sensitivity and specificity, 
(ii) in the plasma and buffy coat collected in the asymptomatic phase of the 
disease. Summary/Conclusions: The expected level of sensitivity for the 
detection of prion in the blood was reached. This assay is currently evaluated 
as a confirmatory detection test for the presence of the vCJD agent in human 
blood. The next step will be to perform prevalence studies by analysing panels 
of at-risk populations. 
Poster Abstracts Poster Abstracts (pages 65–299)
Article first published online: 20 MAY 2013 | DOI: 10.1111/vox.12048
P-368 
IS ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE A PRION DISEASE?
Segarra C and Coste J
Etablissement Francais du Sang Pyr en ees-M editerran ee R&D TransDiag, 
Montpellier, France
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common type of senile dementia, mainly 
affecting individuals over 65 years old. Disease manifestation is characterized 
by progressive impairment of memory and cognition, mainly produced by synaptic 
dysfunction and neuronal loss. This fatal neurodegenerative disease is a matter 
of great interest because since its first description in 1906 by the 
psychiatrist A. Alzheimer the AD cases doesn’t stop to increase and more than 
90% of disease arise sporadically. Cerebral accumulation of misfofded protein 
aggregates composed of amyloid b (Ab) proteins and hyperphosphorylated tau 
protein have been associated to the disease. In the past decade, there has been 
renewed interest in the possibility that the proteins causing neurodegenerative 
disorders are all prions. Recently, the origin of the disease, described until 
now as linked to aging, was re-evaluated by S. Prusiner (Nobel Prize). In animal 
models he has shown that, when the neurodegenerative process had been started, 
it propagates over all the brain, by a prion-like mechanism – prion is the 
responsible agent of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) such as 
Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (CJD).
The misfolding and aggregation mechanisms and structural intermediates are 
very similar in both AD and TSE. The starting point would be a normal protein, 
PrPC (Cellular Prion) for TSE and APP (Amyloid Precursor Protein) for AD, which 
would be converted into pathological misfolded proteins (MFP): PrPSc (scrapie 
Prion) and Ab protein respectively. These MFP would be then implicated in a 
process of selfaggregation, leading to the formation of amyloid plaques in the 
brain. Moreover the mechanism of aggregation follows the same seeding-nucleation 
process.
Several studies in animal models had shown that:
1 For TSE, the PrPSc aggregates generated by this process were 
infectious.
2 Ab deposition can be induced by injection of AD brain extracts into 
animals which without exposure to this material will never develop brain 
alterations.
3 The transfusion of blood from mice with amyloid plaques in brain 
accelerates the neuro-degenerative phenomenon and the memory loss in two 
different models of healthy transgenic mice.
In conclusion, questions on the infectivity of Ab protein in Alzheimer’s 
disease and the possible secondary transmission by blood transfusion are posed. 
P-382
REMOVAL OF EXOGENOUS PRION INFECTIVITY IN LEUCOREDUCED RED BLOOD CELLS UNIT 
BY P-CAPTTM PRION REMOVAL FILTER
Lescoutra N1, Sumian C1, Culeux A1, Durand V2, Deslys JP2 and Comoy EE2 
1MacoPharma, Fontenay-aux-Roses, France 2CEA, Prion Research Group, DSV/ 
IMETI/SEPIA, Fontenay-aux-Roses, France
Background: Five cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) 
infections were probably linked to infusion of contaminated blood components, 
turning to real the inter-human transmissibility of this prion disease from 
asymptomatic carriers. Corresponding preventive policies are currently limited 
to exclusion from blood donation, but also take advantage of leucoreduction 
initially implemented against leucotropic viruses. In the absence of available 
antemortem diagnostic tests, the updated prevalence of silent vCJD infections 
(1/2000 in the UK) urges the necessity to enforce blood safety with more 
efficient active measures able to remove remaining infectivity.
Aims: Several affinity resins were proved to experimentally reduce high 
levels of brain-spiked infectivity from human leucoreduced red blood cell 
concentrates (L-RBC). One was integrated in a device adapted to field 
constraints (volumes, duration) of human transfusion. We aimed here to assess 
the ability of the final device, in its real conditions of use, i.e. the real 
conditions of filtration with human leucoreduced red cell concentrates (L-RBC), 
to remove infectivity from human L-RBC unit spiked with scrapie-infected hamster 
brain.
Methods: A standardized method for preparation of clarified brain 
homogenate from 263 K infected hamsters, allowing elimination of large 
aggregates of PrPres without modification of apparent infectivity, was selected 
for spiking human L-RBC unit. Filtration by gravity, according to the 
manufacturer’s recommendations, of a 0.0001% spiked L-RBC unit was carried out 
on day 1 at room temperature. Pre- and post- blood filtration sample aliquots 
were removed for infectivity studies (intracerebral inoculation of hamsters). 
Results: Incubation periods of recipient animals suggest around 3 log10 removal 
of brain-derived prion infectivity by filtration through the 
P-Capt[TRADEMARK].
Conclusion: On brain-derived spiked infectivity, the P-Capt[TRADEMARK] 
filter provided similar performances as columns used for initial 
proof-of-concept studies (Gregori et al., Lancet 2006), suggesting an 
appropriate scale-up to efficiently remove infectivity from an individual human 
blood bag. According to the ability of resin to completely remove apparent 
endogenous infectivity from hamster leucoreduced blood, the implementation of 
such a filter, now commercially available, might seriously improve blood safety 
towards prion. 
P-383
UPDATE ON THE ABILITY OF THE PRION CAPTURE FILTER, P-CAPTTM, TO DELAY ONSET 
OF AN ORIGINAL MYELOPATHIC DISEASE OBSERVED IN PRIMATES EXPOSED TO PRION 
INFECTED BLOOD PRODUCTS
Lescoutra N1, Jaffre N2, Culeux A1, Sumian C1, Durand V2, Mikol JP2, 
Luccantoni S2, Deslys JP2 and Comoy EE2
1MacoPharma, Fontenay-aux-Roses, France 2CEA, Prion Research Group, DSV/ 
IMETI/SEPIA, Fontenay-aux-Roses, France
Background: In the United Kingdom, the recent report of four human cases of 
variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) through transfusion has justified 
the implementation of measures to secure blood and blood products towards 
prions. Leucoreduction, implemented against blood-borne viruses, is not 
sufficient to remove the entire prion blood infectivity, halved between white 
cells and plasma. In absence of antemortem diagnostic tests, several devices, 
including P-Capt[TRADEMARK] filter, were designed to remove prions. This filter 
incorporates an affinity resin specific for PrP, which has already demonstrated 
its efficiency in removing both exogenous and endogenous prion infectivity in 
the experimental model of hamster infected with the experimental 263 K strain. 
The ability of the P-Capt [TRADEMARK] filter was also previously assessed with 
human L-RBC artificially contaminated with 263 K clarified brain extracts and 
demonstrated comparable efficiency.
Aims: We aimed to complete the evaluation of the P-Capt[TRADEMARK] filter 
with blood-borne infectivity in the cynomolgus macaque considered as an utmost 
relevant model for the investigation of human prion diseases. Methods: Two 
independent experiments were performed 1 year apart. First, five donor primates 
were intravenously (iv) inoculated with high amounts of clarified brain 
homogenate from a BSE-infected primate to maximize their blood infectivity. At 
the onset of first clinical signs, their blood was drawn and pooled to reach a 
volume equivalent to a human blood donation. After whole blood leucoreduction, 
Red Blood Cell Concentrate (L-RBC) was prepared following routine blood human 
procedures. L-RBC was suspended in plasma according to conditions used for 
pediatric transfusion in the UK. Twenty-seven milliliters were transfused to two 
or three recipient primates prior or after P-Capt[TRADEMARK] filtration 
respectively. In the second experiment designed for the evaluation of a combined 
filter for leucoreduction and prion removal, the same scheme was applied with 
RBC (suspended in Sag-M) issued from six animals intravenously infected with 
clarified brain homogenate from a vCJD-infected primate.
Results: In the BSE experiment, both primates injected with L-RBC before 
filtration developed an original neurological disease 30 and 31 months post 
inoculation and died 2 months later. This original neurodegenerative disease is 
described by E. Comoy et al. as an atypical form of prion disease. Conversely, 
all the three animals transfused with P-Capt[TRADEMARK] filtrated L-RBC still 
remained asymptomatic 54 months post transfusion. In the v-CJD experiment, first 
clinical signs evocative of the myelopathic syndrome were detected in both 
primates before filtration 20– 27 months post inoculation. One of them was 
subject to euthanasia 42 mpi, and pathological examination confirmed the 
occurrence of the myelopathic syndrome. The others animals are still 
asymptomatic.
Conclusions: The P-Capt was shown to be able to retain classical prion 
strains. Here in two independent experiments, we demonstrate that this filter is 
also able to retain atypical strains recently identified in primates after 
exposition to human blood products. 
P-384
CONTAMINATED BLOOD PRODUCTS INDUCE AN ATYPICAL PRION DISEASE IN PRIMATES IN 
THE ABSENCE OF DETECTABLE ABNORMAL PRION PROTEIN
Comoy EEC1, Jaffre N1, Mikol J1, Durand V1, Luccantoni S1, Correia E1, 
Jas-Duval C2, Cheval J3, Eloit M4 and Deslys JP1
1Atomic Energy Commission, Fontenay-aux-Roses, France 2EFS, Lille, France 
3Pathoquest, Paris, France 4Pasteur Institute, Paris, France
Background: Concerns about the blood-borne risk of prion infection have 
been confirmed by the occurrence in the UK of four transfusion-related 
infections of vCJD (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease), and an apparently silent 
infection in an hemophiliac patient. Asymptomatic incubation periods in prion 
diseases can extend over decades in humans. Several parameters, including 
factors driving blood infectivity, remain poorly understand.
Aims: We used a validated non-human primate model of prion disease to 
evaluate the transfusional risk linked to v-CJD in human.
Methods: Cynomolgus macaques were inoculated with brain or blood specimens 
from vCJD infected humans and vCJD or BSE-infected monkeys. Neuropathological 
and biochemical findings were obtained using current methods used for human 
patients.
Results: Six out of 12 primates exposed to human or macaque blood-derived 
components exhibited after a long silent incubation period exceeding 5 years an 
original neurological disease (myelopathy) previously not described either in 
humans or primates, and which is devoid of the classical clinical and lesional 
features of prion disease (front leg paresis in the absence of central 
involvement, lesions concentrated in anterior horns of lower cervical cord, with 
no spongiosis or inflammation), while the nine brain-inoculated donor animals 
and one transfused animal exhibited the classical vCJD pattern, and the five 
other primates exposed to blood-derived components remain asymptomatic. No 
abnormal prion protein (PrPres) was detected by standard tests in use for human 
prion diagnosis. No alternative cause has been found in an exhaustive search for 
metabolic, endocrine, toxic, nutritional, vascular and infectious etiologies, 
including a search for pathogen genotypes (‘deep sequencing’). In secondary 
transmission experiments in primates, after shorter incubation periods (<2 a="" accumulation.="" and="" cord="" disease="" div="" induced="" inoculation="" intracerebral="" myelopathic="" of="" plasma="" prion="" prpres="" same="" spinal="" spongiosis="" syndrome="" the="" transfusion="" transmitted="" typical="" whereas="" with="" years="">
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Conclusion: We describe a new neurological syndrome in monkeys exposed to 
various vCJD/BSE-infected blood components. Secondary transmission in primates 
confirm first the transmissibility of this myelopathy, and second its prion 
origin which could not be diagnosed as such in the first recipients. This 
myelopathy might be compared under some aspects to certain forms of human lower 
motor neuron diseases including neuromyelitis optica, the flail arm syndrome of 
ALS and the recently described FOSMN. Similar human infections, were they to 
occur, would not be identified as a prion disease by current diagnostic 
investigations. 
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 
IS ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE A PRION DISEASE? the possible secondary transmission 
by blood transfusion are posed
Sunday, May 19, 2013 
CJD BLOOD SCREENING, DONORS, AND SILENT CARRIERS House of Commons Written 
Answers 16 May 2013 
Monday, May 6, 2013 
Warning of mad cow disease threat to blood transfusions 
Tuesday, April 30, 2013 
Mad cow infected blood 'to kill 1,000’ 
Friday, June 29, 2012
Highly Efficient Prion Transmission by Blood Transfusion 
Tuesday, March 5, 2013 
Use of Materials Derived From Cattle in Human Food and Cosmetics; Reopening 
of the Comment Period FDA-2004-N-0188-0051 (TSS SUBMISSION) 
FDA believes current regulation protects the public from BSE but reopens 
comment period due to new studies
Tuesday, March 05, 2013 
A closer look at prion strains Characterization and important implications 
Prion 
7:2, 99–108; March/April 2013; © 2013 Landes Bioscience 
Sunday, February 10, 2013 
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) biannual update (February 2013) Infection 
report/CJD 
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Proteinopathies, a core concept for understanding and ultimately treating 
degenerative disorders? 
TSS
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