Assessing the risk of transmission of vCJD via blood transfusion and identifying potential for diagnosis and prevention

在英国，有4名患者在输注了感染了克雅氏病（vCJD）的献血者的血液后出现了变异型克雅氏病（vCJD）。这些病例引起了人们的关注，因为献血者在献血时没有表现出任何vCJD的临床症状。目前还不确定是否有更多的人在输注vCJD污染的血液后也会患病，英国感染vCJD但未显示临床疾病的人数也是如此。这些因素目前使得诊断和预防vCJD的进一步人传人极其困难。该项目旨在解决通过输血或血液制品传播vCJD的主要问题。我们的目标是评估vCJD通过血液传播的风险，并确定这种疾病在人传人后是否会发生改变。例如，vCJD从一个人传播到另一个人可能导致接受者的疾病更具侵略性，靶向不同部位或在当前实验室测试中与原始疾病不同。我们还将研究vCJD试剂如何污染血流，以及哪些血细胞或成分受到影响。该计划将为评估通过输血传播vCJD的风险以及开发准确的诊断测试以防止vCJD进一步在人与人之间传播提供重要基础。

In the UK four patients appear to have developed variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) after transfusion of blood from a donors infected with vCJD. These cases raise concern as the blood donors did not show any clinical signs of vCJD at the time the blood donations were made. Whether many more individuals will also develop disease after transfusion of vCJD-contaminated blood is currently uncertain, as is the number of people in the UK infected with vCJD but not showing clinical disease. These factors currently make the diagnosis and prevention of further human to human transmissions of vCJD extremely difficult. This project aims to addresses the major issues surrounding the transmission of vCJD via transfusion of blood or blood products. We aim to assess the risk of transmission of vCJD by blood and to determine whether the disease is modified after human-to-human transmission. For example, transmission of vCJD from one human to another may result in a disease in the recipient that is more aggressive, that targets different sites or appears different from the original disease in current laboratory tests. We will also study how the vCJD agent contaminates the blood stream, and which blood cells or components are affected. This programme will provide an important basis for assessing the risk of vCJD transmission via blood transfusion, and for developing accurate diagnostic tests to prevent further human to human transmission of vCJD.