High-Throughput Sequencing Used To Identify Pathogens in Donated Blood

Ensuring a safe blood supply requires multiple strategies and is continually evolving with new, emerging pathogens.  Researchers in Switzerland recently used high-throughput sequencing to screen 300 units of donated red blood cell and 300 units of donated plasma products.  Sequences obtained were then blasted against virus, bacteria and fungi databases in order to identify pathogens present in the blood products.  Anelloviruses and human pegivirus were commonly found in the donated blood products, and a plasma product contained an astrovirus.  Detection of bacterial and fungi sequences were likely the result of environmental contamination.  High-throughput sequencing may be a useful method to screen blood products for newly emerging pathogens for which screening tests are not yet available.

Reference:

1. Lau P, Cordey S, Brito F, Tirefort D, Petty TJ, Turin L, Guichebaron A, Docquier M, Zdobnov EM, Waldvogel-Abramowski S, Lecompte T, Kaiser L, Preynat-Seauve O. Metagenomics analysis of red blood cell and fresh-frozen plasma units. Transfusion 2017.