PROTECTING MOLECULES IN BIOLOGICALLY DERIVED COMPOSITIONS WHILE TREATING WITH BROAD-SPECTRUM PULSED LIGHT

摘要

Methods for protection of a biomolecule of interest in a biologically derived composition to be subjected to illumination with at least one high-intensity, short duration pulse of incoherent polychromatic light in a broad spectrum (BSPL). Such compositions are supplemented with albumin and then illuminated so that, in the resultant treated compositions, biomolecules of interest remain biologically active as a result of the protection provided by albumin, while the BSPL has exerted its desired effect upon the composition. For example, an active pathogen or other toxin content may have been very substantially reduced, or living cells, e.g. tumorous cells or genetically engineered eukaryotic cells, may have been killed, or a photo-activatable protein may have been rendered active. The biologically derived composition can be a product from a genetically engineered cell line or the like, or it may be a fraction of or an isolate from human or animal sera.