Assay for specific strains of multiple disease related conformations of a protein

A method of determining a strain of PrPSc in a sample, comprising:

• determining the total amount of PrPSc in a unit amount of a sample;
• subjecting the sample to limited protease treatment with proteinase K under conditions sufficient to hydrolyze substantially all protein in the sample except for protease insensitive PrP 27-30;
• determining the amount of treatment insensitive PrP 27-30 in a unit amount of sample subjected to proteinase K treatment;
• and
• subtracting the amounts of treatment insensitive PrP 27-30 from the total amount of PrPSc to obtain the amount of treatment sensitive PrPSc in the sample;
• determining the ratio of treatment sensitive disease PrPSc to total PrPSc protein;
• and
• comparing the determined ratio to a known ratio of a known strain of PrPSc protein to thereby determine the strain of PrPSc protein in the sample
• wherein the known strain of PrPSc is of a strain selected from the group consisting of:
• Drowsy, 139H, Hyper, Me7, MT-C5, RML and Sc237.

A method of determining a strain of PrPSc in a sample, comprising:

• determining the total amount of PrPSc in a unit amount of a sample;
• subjecting the sample to limited protease treatment with proteinase K under conditions sufficient to hydrolyze substantially all protein in the sample except for protease insensitive PrP 27-30;
• determining the amount of treatment insensitive PrP 27-30 in a unit amount of sample subjected to proteinase K treatment;
• and
• subtracting the amounts of treatment insensitive PrP 27-30 from the total amount of PrPSc to obtain the amount of treatment sensitive PrPSc in the sample;
• determining the ratios of treatment sensitive PrPSc to total PrPSc;
• and
• comparing the determined ratio to a known ratio of a known strain of PrPSc to thereby determine the strain and incubation time of PrPSc in the sample.

A method of determining a strain of PrPSc in a sample, comprising:

• determining the total amount of PrPSc in a unit amount of a sample;
• subjecting the sample to limited protease treatment with proteinase K under conditions sufficient to hydrolyze substantially all protein in the sample except for protease insensitive PrP 27-30;
• determining the amount of treatment insensitive PrP 27-30 in a unit amount of sample subjected to proteinase K treatment;
• and
• subtracting the amounts of treatment insensitive PrP 27-30 from the total amount of PrPSc to obtain the amount of treatment sensitive PrPSc in the sample;
• and
• plotting the amount of protease sensitive PrPSc in a unit amount of sample on a graph of incubation time versus amount of sensitive PrPSc in a unit amount of sample which graph includes plotted data of known strains of PrPSc and thereby determining the incubation time of the strain and incubation time of PrPSc in the sample.