Novel approaches in diagnosis and therapy of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The scrapie prion protein, PrP(Sc), as well as its peptide fragment, PrP106-126, are toxic on neuronal cells, resulting in cell death by an apoptotic, rather than necrotic mechanism. The apoptotic process of neuronal cells induced by prion protein supports diagnosis and offers potential targets for therapeutic intervention of the prion diseases. Among the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) proteins, which may serve as markers of neuronal cell death associated with prion diseases, the 14-3-3 protein(s) turned out to be the most promising one. A new sensitive assay allows the detection of even small changes in the normally low levels of these proteins. In vitro, the toxic effects displayed by PrP(Sc) …

Proceedings of Réanimation 2017, the French Intensive Care Society International Congress

Determination of 14-3-3 protein levels in cerebrospinal fluid from Creutzfeldt-Jakob patients by a highly sensitive capture assay.

The level of 14-3-3gamma protein was determined in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and non-CJD patients applying a new and fast microplate assay (14-3-3 protein capture assay), based on the binding to a peptide comprising a phosphorylated recognition motif of 14-3-3 protein. The levels of the gamma-isoform of 14-3-3 protein in CSF samples from CJD patients (n=41) were significantly higher than those observed in patients with non-CJD dementias (n=36) suggesting that this capture assay is a reliable method in the diagnosis of CJD. Since this assay allows the direct measurement of 14-3-3 protein in the CSF without prior concentration it is an ea…