Background: Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is a neurodegenerative infectious disorder, characterized by a prominent accumulation of pathological isoforms of the prion protein (PrP(TSE)) in the brain and lymphoid tissues. Since the publication in the United Kingdom of four apparent vCJD cases following transfusion of red blood cells and one apparent case following treatment with factor VIII, the presence of vCJD infectivity in the blood seems highly probable. For effective blood testing of vCJD individuals in the preclinical or clinical phase of infection, it is considered necessary that assays detect PrP(TSE) concentrations in the femtomolar range.
Methodology/principal findings: We have developed a three-step assay that firstly captures PrP(TSE) from infected blood using a plasminogen-coated magnetic-nanobead method prior to its serial amplification via protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) and specific PrP(TSE) detection by western blot. We achieved a PrP(TSE) capture yield of 95% from scrapie-infected material. We demonstrated the possibility of detecting PrP(TSE) in white blood cells, in buffy coat and in plasma isolated from the blood of scrapie-infected sheep collected at the pre-clinical stage of the disease. The test also allowed the detection of PrP(TSE) in human plasma spiked with a 10(-8) dilution of vCJD-infected brain homogenate corresponding to the level of sensitivity (femtogram) required for the detection of the PrP(TSE) in asymptomatic carriers. The 100% specificity of the test was revealed using a blinded panel comprising 96 human plasma samples.
Conclusion/significance: We have developed a sensitive and specific amplification assay allowing the detection of PrP(TSE) in the plasma and buffy coat fractions of blood collected at the pre-clinical phase of the disease. This assay represents a good candidate as a confirmatory assay for the presence of PrP(TSE) in blood of patients displaying positivity in large scale screening tests.