Effect of Beta‐Propiolactone on Blood Group Antibody Detection

Abstract

A panel of 50 blood group antibodies covering a range of blood group antigens has been tested in the presence of 0.25% beta-propiolactone as a possible means of reducing infectivity of high-risk HTLV III/HBsAg samples. 11/50 (22%) antibodies could not be detected by the indirect antiglobulin test, and 6/40 (15%) were undetectable by the two-stage papain technique.

Effect of Sodium Phosphonoformate on Blood Group Antibody Detection

“…Data obtained from previous experiments [1] showed that pretreatment of serum samples with 0.25% v/v betapropiolactone (BPL) resulted in a significant reduction in the number of antibodies detected by indirect antiglobu lin (IAGT) and by prepapainized cell techniques and was deemed unsuitable. A recent report [2] showed that sodi um phosphonoformate (PFA), an inhibitor of the enzyme reverse transcriptase in a number of retroviruses, com pletely inhibited the replication of HTLV-III in vitro at 680 pmol concentration.…”