Research Article
Jianbing Qin, Kausik Das, E
Abstract
Background: The stability of viral load in a patient blood sample during storage and shipping is an important pre-analytical variable that affects the accuracy of viral pathogen quantitation. Therefore, there is a need for developing a blood collection tube with stabilizing reagents which can not only inactivate the viral agent but also stabilize the viral nucleic acids for accurate viral load determination in blood samples post blood draw. This study was undertaken to investigate the ability of Cyto-Chex® BCT (BCT) blood collection device to stabilize the nucleic acids of the Mason-Pfizer monkey virus, an RNA virus, in collected blood specimens during storage and shipping for viral load determination at a later time point. Findings: Blood was drawn from each donor into K3EDTA and BCT tubes, spiked with Mason-Pfizer monkey virus particles and stored at room temperature. Viral RNA was extracted using RNeasy® FFPE Kit. Our results demonstrate that the viral RNA was stable in blood drawn into BCT after storage at 22°C for 7 days. Virus stored in blood drawn into K3EDTA tubes showed a decrease in viral load over time and a statistically significant decrease was observed at day 7. Shipping blood samples which took 3 days did not have adverse effect on viral load measurements for blood samples collected in BCT. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that BCT can stabilize viral load in blood during shipping and storage at 22°C for 7 days.