AG-BIO: Diagnostic Test for Mad-Cow Disease

Applied Genetics News,  May, 2002  

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Prionics AG (Wagistrasse 27a, CH-8952 Schlieren, Switzerland; Tel: +41 44 2002000, Fax: +41 44 2002010; Website: prionics.ch) and PrioSense, a recent spin-off company of Hadasit at the Hadassah University Medical Centre in Jerusalem, have started the joint development of a live test for prion diseases, based on the recent discovery of disease associated prion protein in the urine of both animals infected with BSE and humans infected with Creutzfeldt- Jakob Disease (CJD). Ruth Gabizon made the discovery at Hadassa University in a joint project with Prionics.

"Current diagnostic screening tests can only be used for post- mortem diagnosis of the disease as they require brain tissue for analysis," explains Gabizon who is directing the research at PrioSense. "The new urine-based test provides reliable early indicators of the prion disease." It will for the first time facilitate screening of live animals and humans for prion diseases.

"For years, we thought that live tests might not be possible based on the direct detection of prion proteins in body fluids, but might require testing of less reliable third markers, comments Bruno Oesch, CEO and head of research at Prionics. "The prion protein correlates 100% with disease and therefore facilitates the highest accuracy in diagnosis of BSE and CJD."

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COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group