[Pathogen reduction for platelets: available techniques and recent developments]

The will to reach for blood components a microbiological safety comparable to that of plasma-derived drugs led to the development of numerous pathogen reduction research programs for red blood cells and\or platelets in the 1990s. A consensus conference organized in 2007 allowed to define the main steps and precautions to be taken for the implementation of these processes. In the specific case of platelet concentrates, three processes stay this day in the run, even if they are not at the same development stage. A process using ultraviolet C only is at the stage of preclinical studies. The Mirasol® process, based on the activation of riboflavin by exposure to ultraviolet A and ultraviolet B is CE marked (class IIb), and a clinical study was published in 2010. The Intercept® process, involving the activation of a psoralen molecule by exposure to ultraviolet A, is CE marked (class III) since 2002, and has been licensed in France since 2005, in Germany since 2005 and in Switzerland since 2010. At least 12 clinical studies have been published. In regard to this last pathogen reduction process, the medical and scientific documentation, from in vitro investigations to post-marketing observational studies, is much more developed than the corresponding documentation of some innovative processes at the time of their generalization, such as the SAG-mannitol solution for red cell concentrates in 1979, leukoreduction filters for platelets and red cells concentrates in the 1990s, the solvent detergent therapeutic plasma in 1992 or the methylene blue therapeutic plasma in 2006.