Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Enhanced prion detection in biological samples by magnetic particle extraction and real-time quaking-induced conversion.
- Journal:
- The Journal of general virology
- Year:
- 2016
- Authors:
- Denkers, Nathaniel D et al.
- Affiliation:
- Department of Microbiology · United States
Plain-English summary
Researchers have found that prions, which are misfolded proteins that can cause diseases, can be present in very small amounts in body fluids like saliva, urine, and feces, making them hard to detect with standard tests. They developed a new method that uses magnetic particles to help pull out these prions and a special technique called real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) to make the detection faster and more sensitive. This improved method could help in diagnosing diseases like chronic wasting disease in animals before they show severe symptoms. It may also be useful for monitoring and studying other similar diseases. Overall, this new approach could significantly enhance our ability to detect prions in biological samples.
Abstract
Prions have been demonstrated in body fluids and excreta using bioassay, but at levels too low for detection by conventional direct-detection assays. More rapid and sensitive detection of prions in these clinically accessible specimens would be valuable for diagnosis and investigations of transmission, environmental impact, and interventions. In addition to very low concentrations of prions, in vitro amplification assays are challenged by the presence of inhibitors in these complex sources. Here, we leverage the prion attribute of avid metal binding with the versatile power of real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) to enhance and simplify detection of chronic wasting-disease prions in biological samples. Iron oxide particle binding and magnetic extraction combined with RT-QuIC permitted rapid analysis of the low concentrations of prions in saliva, urine, faeces, and cerebrospinal fluid. These methods are pertinent to ante-mortem detection, monitoring, and surveillance, and could conceivably be applicable to other protein-misfolding disorders.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27233771/