New tests quickly identify prion strains

LA JOLLA, Calif., Dec. 6 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have developed tests to identify lethal prion strains quickly and accurately, leading to significantly accelerated prion research.

One of the new in vitro tests developed at the Scripps Research Institute is called the Standard Scrapie Cell Assay. Researchers said the test measures prion infectivity levels in a highly accurate and extremely rapid way, producing results in less than two weeks. The second test, called the Cell Panel Assay, allows researchers to quickly distinguish between several prion strains in various cells lines.

Using the new assays, the scientists were able to show that four different cell lines exhibited widely different responses to four different strains of the infectious protein particles.

The research that included scientists from Scripps Florida and the University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland, is reported in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.