Methods and compositions for detection of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and variant creutzfeldt-jacob disease

Abstract

The present invention discloses compositions and methods for the detection of infective agents (prions) associated with transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. More particularly, the present invention involves compositions and methods for detection and diagnosis of “mad cow” disease and vCJD. In certain embodiments, prions are treated to remove bound lipids before immunodetection. In other embodiments, hydrophobic probes are used to collect prions from oral or anal tissue. Preferred embodiments of the invention involve the use of arrays of binding moieties, such as antibodies, with varying degrees of affinity and specificity for the infective agent. The presence of prions in biological samples may be determined by the pattern of binding of infective agent to the array. The prions may be distinguished from other proteins of similar or identical amino acid sequence, but different secondary, tertiary or quaternary structure, by the different patterns of binding to the array.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.