Clinical and Developmental Immunology
Volume 2013 (2013), Article ID 360604, 8 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/360604
Review Article
TSE Diagnostics: Recent Advances in Immunoassaying Prions
Department for Production of Diagnostic Reagents and Research, Blood Transfusion Centre of Slovenia, Šlajmerjeva 6, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Received 15 March 2013; Revised 27 May 2013; Accepted 2 July 2013
Academic Editor: Benaissa El Moualij
Copyright © 2013 Anja Lukan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) or prion diseases are a group of rare fatal neurodegenerative diseases, affecting humans and animals. They are believed to be the consequence of the conversion of the cellular prion protein to its aggregation-prone, β-sheet-rich isoform, named prion. Definite diagnosis of TSEs is determined post mortem. For this purpose, immunoassays for analyzing brain tissue have been developed. However, the ultimate goal of TSE diagnostics is an ante mortem test, which would be sensitive enough to detect prions in body fluids, that is, in blood, cerebrospinal fluid, or urine. Such a test would be of paramount importance also for screening of asymptomatic carriers of the disease with the aim of increasing food, drugs, and blood-derived products safety. In the present paper, we have reviewed recent advances in the development of immunoassays for the detection of prions.
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