Estimating prion concentration in fluids and tissues by quantitative PMCA

Abstract

Prions, the proteinaceous infectious agent responsible for prion diseases, can be detected with high sensitivity by protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) technology. Here we describe a quantitative PMCA procedure to calculate the concentration of very low levels of prions in biological samples. Using this procedure, we determined the quantities of misfolded prion protein (PrP Sc) in brain, spleen, blood and urine of scrapie-affected hamsters. © 2010 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.