Prion disease: New techniques developed for prion detection in blood and cerebrospinal fluid.

摘要

Research teams based in the UK and Japan have developed new assays in blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), respectively, to detect the misfolded prion proteins that cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Their findings could have important ramifications for the antemortem diagnosis of CJD.The blood-based assay was developed by John Collinge, Graham Jackson and colleagues at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Prion Unit, London, UK. "The ability to diagnose prion disease has been a long-term aim of the MRC Prion Unit and National Prion Clinic," says Collinge. "The ultimate aim has been to develop a straightforward noninvasive method-ideally using blood as an analyte-that could be used for screening purposes in addition to clinical care."