Development of Aptamer Beacons for Antemortem Diagnosis of Chronic Wasting Disease
Abstract
The transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) chronic wasting disease (CWD) of elk and deer has the potential for transmission to human beings. Reliable antemortem diagnostic tests for CWD are necessary for its control in deer and elk populations. CWD and other TSEs are thought to occur when a normal cellular prion protein (PrPC) mis-folds to an aggregated and degradation resistant PrPSC form. Development of a novel diagnostic probe termed aptamers to detect CWD was proposed. Aptamer selections were conducted against 1) tyrosyl-tyrosyl-arginine (YYR) tripeptide thought to be exposed in PrPsc but not in PrPc, 2) CWD PrPsc, and 3) motif grafted antibodies for two PrP motifs (provided to us by Williams laboratory at the Scripps Research Institute) believed to be involved in mis-folding of PrPC to PrPSC. Selection with the latter two targets resulted in aptamers that recognized PrP as assessed by direct target binding assays. Although not specific for PrPsc, aptamers selected against a grafted motifs for PrP sequences 89-112 bound to CWD PrPsc at higher levels than to rPrPC.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA472705
Entities
People
- Kenneth D. Clinkenbeard
Organizations
- Oklahoma State University–Stillwater