Daniel Heinzer, Merve Avar, Manuela Pfammatter, Rita Moos, Petra Schwarz, Matthias T. Buhmann, Benjamin Kuhn, Stefan Mauerhofer, Urs Rosenberg, Adriano Aguzzi, Simone Hornemann
Abstract
Iatrogenic transmission of prions, the infectious agents of fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, through inefficiently decontaminated medical instruments remains a critical issue.
Introduction
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), or prion diseases, represent a group of fatal disorders which are hallmarked by the misfolding and aggregation of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) into a pathological, proteinase K (PK) resistant form, PrPSc [1].
Materials and Methods
Products and conditions used in this study and summarized in Tables 1 and 2 were formulated and provided by Borer Chemie AG (Zuchwil, Switzerland). During the TESSA screening experiments, experimenters were blinded for the content of the different formulations and results were provided to Borer Chemie AG.
Result
To develop an assay that allows for the fast screening of novel anti-prion decontaminants, we modified the RT-QuIC assay [28, 31] for the detection of surface-attached prions using micron-sized stainless-steel beads as prion carriers (AISI 316L).
Discussion
In this study, we have developed TESSA, a stainless-steel bead RT-QuIC assay, as a tool for the rapid screening of a large number of chemical formulations to assess their effectiveness to inactivate prions on steel surfaces.
Acknowledgments
We thank Linda Irpinio and Dezirae Schneider for technical assistance and Dr. Regina Reimann for discussions.
Citation: Heinzer D, Avar M, Pfammatter M, Moos R, Schwarz P, Buhmann MT, et al. (2024) Advancing surgical instrument safety: A screen of oxidative and alkaline prion decontaminants using real-time quaking-induced conversion with prion-coated steel beads as surgical instrument mimetic. PLoS ONE 19(6): e0304603. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0304603
Editor: Rodrigo Morales, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, UNITED STATES
Received: August 8, 2023; Accepted: May 14, 2024; Published: June 13, 2024
Copyright: © 2024 Heinzer et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Data Availability: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files.
Funding: This work was funded by Innosuisse - the Swiss Innovation Agency (CTI Project No. 18795.1). A.A. is supported by institutional core funding by the University of Zurich and the University Hospital of Zurich, the Innovation Fund of the University Hospital Zurich (INOV00096), a Distinguished Scientist Award of the NOMIS Foundation, and grants from the GELU Foundation, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF grant ID 179040 and grant ID 207872, Sinergia grant ID 183563), the HMZ ImmunoTarget grant, the Human Frontiers Science Program (grant ID RGP0001/2022), the Michael J. Fox Foundation (grant ID MJFF-022156), and the Innosuisse Innovation project 100.020 IP-LS. SH is the recipient of grants from the Michael J. Fox Foundation (grant ID MJFF-020710 and MJFF-021073). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: Borer Chemie AG (Zuchwil, Switzerland) is the distributor of the formulations used in this study. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.
Source: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0304603#abstract0
