Blood transfusions could possibly transmit harmful brain proteins like amyloid-beta, a review suggested, and additional research and safety measures may be warranted.
"The risks of transfusion-related transmission of amyloid-beta pathology are currently undefined, and achieving clarity will take time," wrote John Collinge, MD, of University College London, and colleagues in The Lancet.
"Rigorous science will help find answers, but in the meantime, public health officials and blood transfusion services are faced with difficult decisions and urgently require further data on risk and access to feasible and accurate screening assays," they stated.
In their Lancet Viewpoint article, Collinge and co-authors reviewed evidence for transmitting amyloid-beta, a protein associated with Alzheimer's disease and cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA).
"The Viewpoint article arose from an international workshop we convened to review the evidence that amyloid-beta pathology might be transmissible by blood transfusion," Collinge said.
