Open AccessStandards for the assay of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease specimens
Author(s) -
Philip D. Minor,
J. Newham,
N. Jones,
Catherine Bergeron,
Luisa Gregori,
David M. Asher,
Frank van Engelenburg,
Thomas Stroebel,
Martin Vey,
Geoff Barnard,
Mark W. Head
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of general virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.55
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1465-2099
pISSN - 0022-1317
DOI - 10.1099/vir.0.79959-0
Subject(s) - virology , infectivity , biology , in vitro , vial , in vivo , creutzfeldt jakob syndrome , disease , prion protein , pathology , virus , medicine , chromatography , chemistry , genetics
Assays for the agent of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) include measurement of infectivity in different animal systems, such as wild-type or transgenic mice, and detection of PrP Sc by different methods and formats. The various assays could be best calibrated against each other by use of uniform readily available materials, and samples of four human brains, two from sporadic CJD patients, one from a variant CJD patient and one from a non-CJD patient, have been prepared as 10 % homogenates dispensed in 2000 vials each for this purpose. Results of in vitro methods, particularly immunoblot assays, were compared in the first collaborative study described here. While dilution end-points varied, the minimum detectable volume was surprisingly uniform for most assays and differences in technical procedure, other than the sample volume tested, had no detectable systematic effect. The two specimens from sporadic CJD cases contained both type 1 and type 2 prion proteins in approximately equal proportions. The materials have been given the status of reference reagents by the World Health Organization and are available for further study and assessment of other in vitro or in vivo assay procedures.