2021 Volume 67 Issue 3 Pages 425-431
In August 2014, the Japanese Red Cross Blood Center introduced individual nucleic acid amplification test (NAT) screening using the PANTHER system. All blood donations are screened by multiplex-NAT (MPX-NAT) for hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus and human immunodeficiency virus. In this study, in MPX-NAT, we analyzed two blood donor samples that could not be tested due to repeated failures in the washing operation during the nucleic acid extraction process on PANTHER. The nucleic acid extraction process was reproduced in a test tube to confirm the effect of the Target Enhancer Reagent (TER), which is added in MPX-NAT only. In both cases, aggregates were formed in the test tubes to which TER was added, and IgG-type M protein was identified in blood donor samples. We speculated that aggregates were formed due to interaction between TER and M protein, and that these caused the failure in washing operations. The possibility of M protein in samples that cannot be tested due to repeated failures on PANTHER should be considered for the contribution of the health management of blood donors.
