Issue |
Vet. Res.
Volume 39, Number 4, July-August 2008
Prion diseases in animals
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Number of page(s) | 12 | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/vetres:2008009 | |
Published online | 15 February 2008 | |
How to cite this article | Vet. Res. (2008) 39:33 |
DOI: 10.1051/vetres:2008009
Review
Progress and limits of TSE diagnostic tools
Jacques Grassi, Séverine Maillet, Stéphanie Simon and Nathalie MorelCEA, iBiTecS, Service de Pharmacologie et d'Immunoanalyse, bâtiment 136, CEA/Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Received 2 October 2007; accepted 5 February 2008 ; published online 15 February 2008
Abstract - Following the two "mad cow" crises of 1996 and 2000,
there was an urgent need for rapid and sensitive diagnostic methods to
identify animals infected with the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)
agent. This stimulated research in the field of prion diagnosis and led to
the establishment of numerous so-called "rapid tests" which have been in use
in Europe since 2001 for monitoring at-risk populations (rendering plants)
and animals slaughtered for human consumption (slaughterhouse). These rapid
tests have played a critical role in the management of the mad cow crisis by
allowing the removal of prion infected carcasses from the human food chain,
and by allowing a precise epidemiological monitoring of the BSE epizootic.
They are all based on the detection of the abnormal form of the prion
protein (PrP or PrP
in brain tissues and consequently are
only suitable for post-mortem diagnosis. Since it is now very clear that
variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) can be transmitted by blood
transfusion, the development of a blood test for the diagnosis of vCJD is a
top priority. Although significant progress has been made in this direction,
including the development of the protein misfolding cyclic amplification
(PMCA) technology, at the time this paper was written, this objective had
not yet been achieved. This is the most important challenge for the years to
come in this field of prion research.
Key words: TSE diagnosis / PrP / blood test / PMCA
Corresponding author: jacques.grassi@cea.fr
© INRA, EDP Sciences 2008