Prion Diseases as Transmissible Zoonotic Diseases

Lee, Jeongmin; Kim, Su Yeon; Hwang, Kyu Jam; Ju, Young Ran; Woo, Hee-Jong

Fresh tissue PrP Sc and infectivity BSE Z bovine spongiform encephalopathy; ELISA Z enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. reaction (PCR), which utilizes a combination of antibody features and the sensitivity of PCR. Recently, realtime quaking-induced conversion has been developed for an assay in which disease-associated prion protein initiates a rapid conformational transition in recombinant prion protein, resulting in the formation of amyloid that can be monitored in real time [66] . Nevertheless, although these new diagnostic methods have more than 100 times the sensitivity of the conventional ELISA method, they still have unstable backgrounds or give false positives, making it difficult to use them as authorized tests. However, diagnostic methods to determine pathogenic PrP d based on PK resistance are limited, since PKsensitive prions with pathogenic characteristics have been found [67] . Conventional tests for BSE or vCJD cannot detect PK-sensitive prions. Furthermore, some cases diagnosed as dementia may actually be cases of vCJD [68] . Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop novel diagnostic tests that are faster and more accurate in detecting new types of prions [69] .