Harnessing the potential of blood donation archives for influenza surveillance and control

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 15; no. 5; p. e0233605
• Main Authors: Zhang, Yanyu, Leung, Kathy, Perera, Ranawaka A P M, Lee, Cheuk-Kwong, Peiris, J S Malik, Wu, Joseph T
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 29.05.2020; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Antibodies; Antibodies, Viral - blood; Antibodies, Viral - immunology; Anticoagulants; Archives; Archives & records; Biology and Life Sciences; Blood; Blood & organ donations; Blood Banks; Blood donation; Blood Donors; Blood transfusions; Correlation coefficient; Correlation coefficients; Cross-Sectional Studies; Distribution; Edetic acid; Epidemics; Epidemiological Monitoring; Epidemiology; Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acids; Health surveillance; Hemagglutination; Hemagglutination inhibition; Hong Kong - epidemiology; Humans; Infectious diseases; Influenza; Influenza A; Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype - immunology; Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype - isolation & purification; Influenza A Virus, H3N2 Subtype - immunology; Influenza A Virus, H3N2 Subtype - isolation & purification; Influenza, Human - blood; Influenza, Human - epidemiology; Influenza, Human - immunology; Medical research; Medicine and Health Sciences; Methods; Middle Aged; Pandemics; Plasma; Public health; Records and correspondence; Research and Analysis Methods; Risk assessment; Risk management; Sentinel surveillance; Seroconversion; Serology; Studies; Surveillance; Transfusion; Validity; Young Adult; Hong Kong; Hong Kong China; United Kingdom > UK; Australia; France; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0233605

Many blood donation services around the globe maintain large archives of serum and/or plasma specimens of blood donations which could potentially be used for serologic surveillance and risk assessment of influenza. Harnessing this potential requires robust evidence that the outcomes of influenza serology in plasma, which is rarely used, is consistent with that in serum, which is the conventional choice of specimens for influenza serology. We harvested EDTA-plasma specimens from the blood donation archives of Hong Kong Red Cross Transfusion Services, where EDTA is the type of anticoagulant used for plasma collection, compared their antibody titers and responses to that in serum. Influenza A/H1N1/California/7/2009 and A/H3N2/Victoria/208/2009 were the test strains. Our results showed that antibody titers in 609 matched serum/EDTA-plasma specimens (i.e. obtained from the same donor at the same time) had good agreement inferred by Intraclass Correlation Coefficient, the value of which was 0.82 (95% CI: 0.77-0.86) for hemagglutination inhibition assay and 0.95 (95% CI: 0.93-0.96) for microneutralization assay; seroconversion rates (based on hemagglutination inhibition titers) during the 2010 and 2011 influenza seasons in Hong Kong inferred from paired EDTA-plasma were similar to that inferred from paired sera. Our study provided the proof-of-concept that blood donation archives could be leveraged as a valuable source of longitudinal blood specimens for the surveillance, control and risk assessment of both pandemic and seasonal influenza.