NR AWOD
AU Soto,C.; Castilla,J.; Morales,R.; Saa,P.
TI Biochemical detection of prions in blood
QU International Conference - Prion 2006: Strategies, advances and trends towards protection of society - 3.10.-6.10.2006, Torino, Italy, Lingotto Conference Centre - Oral sessions ORAL-44
PT Konferenz-Vortrag
AB The development of highly sensitive assays for biochemical detection of PrPsc is considered a top priority for minimizing the spread of the disease. We have optimized and automated the protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) technology for high sensitive detection of PrPsc. PMCA enables the specific and reproducible amplification of exceptionally minute quantities of PrPsc. Indeed, after 7 rounds of PMCA we were able to generate large amounts of PrPsc starting from a 1 x10-12 dilution of scrapie hamster brain, which contains the equivalent to approximately 26 molecules of protein monomers. According to recent data this quantity is similar to the minimum number of molecules present in a single unit of infectious PrPsc, indicating that PMCA may enable detection of as little as 1 oligomeric PrPsc infectious particle. The unprecedented amplification efficiency of PMCA leads to several billion folds increase of sensitivity for PrPsc detection as compared to standard tests used to screen prion infected cattle and at least 4000-times more sensitivity than the animal bioassay. The extremely high sensitivity of PMCA enabled detection of PrPsc in blood samples of hamsters at the symptomatic and pre-symptomatic stages of the disease. These findings represent the first time in which PrPsc has been detected biochemically in blood, offering a high promise for developing a noninvasive early diagnosis of prion diseases.
AD University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, USA
SP englisch
PO Italien