Methodology For Detecting Prions In Vitro

Because Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is so rare, any assay for the disease must have near-perfect specificity. A problem with both cycling assays is that PrP^C converts into oligomers and fibrils in the absence of PrP^Sc. Additional work is needed to address this problem. Nevertheless it is possible that these assays could one day lead to earlier diagnosis and treatments, if the latter become available.  LINK