Chemical and biological mechanisms of pathogen reduction technologies.

Within the last decade new technologies have been developed and implemented which employ light, often in the presence of a photosensitizer, to inactivate pathogens that reside in human blood products for the purpose of transfusion. These pathogen reduction technologies attempt to find the proper balance between pathogen kill and cell quality. Each system utilizes various chemistries that not only impact which pathogens they can inactivate and how, but also how the treatments affect the plasma and cellular proteins and to what degree. This paper aims to present the various chemical mechanisms for pathogen reduction in transfusion medicine that are currently practiced or in development.