PMCA for Ultrasensitive Detection of Prions and to Study Disease Biology

Overview

Journal Cell Tissue Res

Specialties Anatomy & Histology
Cell Biology

Date 2022 Dec 25

PMID 36567368

Authors

Fei Wang

Sandra Pritzkow

Claudio Soto

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The emergence of a novel class of infectious agent composed exclusively of a misfolded protein (termed prions) has been a challenge in modern biomedicine. Despite similarities on the behavior of prions with respect to conventional pathogens, the many uncertainties regarding the biology and virulence of prions make them a worrisome paradigm. Since prions do not contain nucleic acids and rely on a very different way of replication and spreading, it was necessary to invent a novel technology to study them. In this article, we provide an overview of such a technology, termed protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA), and summarize its many applications to detect prions and understand prion biology.

Citing Articles

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Detection of prions in matching post-mortem skin and cerebrospinal fluid samples using second-generation real-time quaking-induced conversion assay.

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