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13 February 2003

Detection of Prions: Developing Technology

(Filed 12/02/03)

© Teviot Scientific Consultancy

The international company Gradipore (www.gradipore.com) announced in a news release dated 6th February 2003 that its

"Gradiflow technology has been proven to successfully concentrate and remove infectious prions and non-infectious prion proteins from human biological samples in laboratory studies. The advance is the result of experiments designed, performed and validated in collaboration with the Scottish Blood Transfusion Service and Q-One Biotech, an independent authority in the design and implementation of virus, prions and other contaminant validation studies."

This could be an important development as a method of detecting pathological prions in blood samples from the early preclinical stages in the development of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSE). Potentially it could lead to the development of a non-invasive diagnostic test in livestock.

It is understood that an abstract has been submitted to present the full results at a scientific forum later in 2003. Land-Care is endeavouring to find out where and when this forum meets, so as to learn the comments of peer review.

It is encouraging that there is strong Scottish collaboration in this study. In addition to the Scottish Blood Transfusion Service, Q-One Biotech is based in Glasgow, Scotland and in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.

Further Reading Recommended by Land-Care

Haywood, S. and Brown, D. R. (2003). Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies. Veterinary Times, 33 (2): 8-10.
Filed 28 January 2003, www.land-care.org.uk, click here to view).

Leake, Jonathan (2002). Test everyone for BSE, says Nobel Prize Winner. Sunday Times, 1st December 2002.
(Filed 9 December 2002, www.land-care.org.uk, click here to view).

Linklater, Magnus (2002). They drive us Mad with False Fears about Mad Cows. The Times, 5th December, 2002.
(Filed 9 December 2002, www.land-care.org.uk, click here to view).

Food Standards Agency Condemns Haggis. Land-Care, 2002, click here to view.

Pennington, Hugh (2000). The English Disease. London Review of Books, 22, December 14 2002.
(Filed 2002, www.land-care.org.uk, click here to view).

Editorial Comment: Predicted Future Incidence of vCJD in the UK Population. Land-Care, 2002, click here to view.

Irvine, W. J. (2002). What is a Prion? Land-Care, 2002, click here to view.