Clinical studies with solvent detergent-treated products.

V ' IRAL SAFETY OF blood and its derivatives has been a focus of particular concern for the past 20 years. The fact that hepatitis was a serious and not infrequent adverse sequela of transfusion, combined with recognition that acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) could be transmitted by blood and blood products, has resulted in an expansion of scientific research in the field of viral inactivation. One of the most successful techniques of viral inactivation applied to plasma and plasma derivatives has been solvent detergent (S/D) technology. This technique is based on the ability of a solvent and detergent mixture to destroy the lipid envelope of viruses while maintaining protein integrity of plasma fractions. Cellular blood components cannot be S/D treated because the lipid bilayer of the cells would disintegrate. Nonenveloped viruses are not destroyed by S/D treatment because the viral protein coat is not susceptible to the solubilizing effect of the S/D mixture.