SCIENTISTS in Germany have developed a test that can detect a single clump of prions, the deformed proteins thought to cause the fatal brain condition Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Currently, a diagnosis of CJD can only be confirmed after death. The new technique might permit earlier diagnosis of CJDand maybe Alzheimer's disease.
Prions form clumps in the body, one way in which they are believed to damage the brain. Hans Kretzschmar and colleagues at the University of Göttingen attached antibodies that seek out the deformed prion to molecules that fluoresce red or green when illuminated with lasers. Clumps from hamsters with scrapie, a prion disease that normally affects sheep, became coated with labelled antibodies and fluoresced so strongly under lasers beamed through a microscope that a single clump could be detected.
At present, the most sensitive test for prions is to inject suspect tissue into the brain of a susceptible animal ...
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