Gravity-driven crossflow membrane filtration and mechanical centrifugation yield plasma with equivalent total and COVID-19-specific immunoglobulin content

Rosita Bihariesingh-Sanchit 1, 2, *, Rakesh Bansie 3, Shannon Tjon A Sam 2, Cheneal Lieveld 2, Anoushka Simons 2, Jimmy Kromosoeto 4, Sjef J.C.M. van de Leur 5, Stephen C. Vreden 3, Zaheeb Choudhry 6, Angélique B. van ‘t Wout 7, 8, Marien I. de Jonge 9, 10, Dimitri A. Diavatopoulos 9, 10 and Arno P. Nierich 1, 11

1 Department of Anesthesiology, Academic Hospital Paramaribo, Paramaribo, Suriname.
2 Department of Intensive Care, Academic Hospital Paramaribo, Paramaribo, Suriname.
3 Department of Internal Medicine, Academic Hospital Paramaribo, Paramaribo, Suriname.
4 Department of Anesthesiology, St. Vincentius Hospital, Paramaribo, Suriname.
5 Department of Clinical Chemistry, Isala Clinics, Zwolle, The Netherlands.
6 Department of Nephrology and Therapeutic Apheresis, Horacio Oduber Hospital, Aruba.
7 AlphaBiomics Limited, London, United Kingdom.
8 Van ‘t Wout Pharma Consulting, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
9 Department of Laboratory Medicine, Laboratory of Medical Immunology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
10 Radboud Center for Infectious Diseases (RCI), Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
11 HemoClear BV, Zwolle, The Netherlands.
 
Research Article
World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2024, 21(02), 1107–1115
Article DOI: 10.30574/wjarr.2024.21.2.0527
Publication history: 
Received on 13 February 2024; revised on 14 February 2024; accepted on 16 February 2024
 
Abstract: 
While the administration of convalescent plasma is a promising therapy for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), upfront costs and technological barriers of conventional plasmapheresis have limited the collection and processing of COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). We previously reported that bedside plasma separation using gravity-driven microfiltration has made CCP therapy accessible as a treatment option in Suriname. However, the question remains whether the gravity-driven microfiltration method yields similar amounts of immunoglobulins as compared to conventional plasmapheresis. Here, we compared the gravity-driven microfiltration method with conventional plasma centrifugation for the total and COVID-19-specific immunoglobulin content of the obtained CCP. Blood donations from 10 donors recovered from PCR-confirmed COVID-19 were processed using both methods. Samples were collected pre- and post-processing for analysis to allow direct comparison of both methods. There were no differences in COVID-19-specific IgG levels between convalescent plasma obtained by microfiltration and centrifugation for 4 of the 5 assays used. Anti-RBD-Omicron IgG levels were slightly higher in the plasma obtained after filtration (median 274, range 69 to 1258) than after centrifugation (median 249, range 67 to 1175), Wilcoxon P = 0.0488. No significant differences were detected between the two methods for levels of total albumin, total cholesterol, total IgA, IgM and IgG levels. These results indicate that gravity-driven microfiltration and conventional centrifugation yield CCP with equivalent amounts of total and COVID-19-specific antibodies. This makes the gravity-driven microfiltration method a viable option for the collection and treatment with CCP in the LMICs setting.
 
Keywords: 
Convalescent plasma; COVID-19; HemoClear; SARS-CoV-2
 
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Copyright information: 
Copyright © 2024 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0

 

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