Abstract
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a fatal neurological disease affecting cervids caused by prions. Infected cervids shed the CWD prion in bodily fluids and excrement, contaminating the environment and creating an agricultural and ecological calamity. Preclinical antemortem CWD testing method is demanded by CWD risk management programs. In vitro PrP-conversion assays have been developed as potential tools for such an approach with increasing sensitivity for prion detection. However, no method has been routinely employed thus far. Timing recombinant-PrP conversion into amyloid fibrils, seeded by elk CWD prion, as a diagnostic method is presented herein. The assay, termed “RePLICA”, is at least as sensitive for detecting elk CWD in brain tissues as Tg(CerPrP-M132)1536+/- and Tg(CerPrP-E226)5037+/- mouse bioassay models. The assay performs within a period of 35 hours, is consistently reproducible, and functions on elk brain and tonsil tissues. There are indications RePLICA has the potential to titre CWD infectivity.
