Antibodies specific for ungulate PrP
AssigneesThe Regents of the University of California, The Scripps Research Institute
InventorsStanley B. Prusiner, Jiri G. Safar, R. Anthony Williamson, Dennis R. Burton
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Abstract
The present invention provides antibodies that specifically bind with a high degree of binding affinity to a native ungulate PrPC and/or a denatured ungulate PrPSc, but not to a native ungulate PrPSc. Preferred antibodies find native bovine PrPC and treated PrPSc but not native bovine PrPSc and can be used in an assay to determine if a sample is infected with infectious prions, i.e. PrPSc.
Claims20
An antibody characterized by its ability to preferentially bind to a native ungulate PrPC in situ.
An antibody which specifically binds to native ungulate PrPC, said antibody produced by the process comprising the steps of:
- synthesizing a library of antibodies on phage;
- panning the library against a sample by bringing the phage into contact with a composition comprising ungulate PrP proteins;
- isolating phage which bind native ungulate PrPC.
A method of detecting ungulate PrPSc in a source comprising:
- treating an ungulate sample suspected of containing PrPSc with an enzyme to remove PrPC in the sample;
- further treating the sample to denature any PrPSc in the sample;
- and
- contacting the sample suspected of containing PrPSc with a diagnostically effective amount of an antibody which specifically binds to denatured PrPSc in the sample;
- and
- determining whether the antibody binds specifically to any material in the sample.
An assay, comprising:
- a support surface;
- and
- an antibody bound to the surface of the support, the antibody characterized by an ability to bind denatured ungulate PrPSc with a binding affinity of 107 l/mole or more.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.