Technologies to detect the Prion

Technologies to detect the Prion

Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Table................................................................................................................................................2
Description of five technologies......................................................................................................7
Protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification (PMCA) Application.................................................7
Immunohistochemical Detection.................................................................................................9
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)........................................................................10
The Real-Time Quaking-Induced Conversion (RT-QuIC) assay..............................................11
Streptomycin detection..............................................................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................14

Abstract
Prion diseases is comprised with several conditions, where a prion is one of the type of
protein which can be triggered the normal proteins in human brain in order to fold abnormally.
Such diseases can affect both animals and man as well as sometimes can spread to humans
through infected beef and other meat products. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) refers to the
most common form of prion disease which highly affects humans. Therefore, a number of
technologies are demonstrated in this report that are used for detecting prions at early stage, so
that treatments can be given prior for improving quality of life.
Introduction
The Protein has been known for its beneficial roles in the organisms since it was recognized
as early as the 18th century until 1967, when Griffith assumed that some proteins could be
infectious and they are the pathogens in scrapie. Scrapie is a fatal disease that affects the central
nervous system of sheep and goats. Griffith’s hypothesis was unsupported by evidence until
1982 when Prusiner and co-workers had purified the pathogens in the brain of hamsters infected
by scrapie, they found particles consisting of a specific protein that they called a “prion”. Over
the last 30 years the prion hypothesis has proven that the prion is responsible for many
transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) or “prion diseases” in humans and mammals,
including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), Kuru and mad cow disease.
A Prion (PrP) is a protein that is naturally synthesized in the body and it is expressed by the gene
PRNP. The main function of Prion is obscure, however, researchers have suggested that it plays
an important role in some essential processes in the brain such as the formation of synapses that
connect between neurons and transport of copper. Mutations in PRNP resulting in abnormal
protein synthesis known as PrPSc. This gene is located in the short (p) arm of chromosome 20 at
position 13.
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