Free small peptides, antibody

Schmerr and Jenny established a CE-based immunoassay for the detection of prion protein (24). In this competitive assay, peptides derived from the prion protein and labeled with fluorescein were used. This allowed them to distinguish scrapie-infected brain preparations from noninfected. For identification, the ratio between the peaks resulting from the free and the com-plexed peptide with a specific antibody was used. The results were in agreement with other data on the brain preparations achieved by Western blot analysis. The CE-based assay provides the advantage of direct detection of the scrapie protein in blood and tissue preparations with high sensitivity. Furthermore, due to the small sample amount needed for analysis, the CE-based assay is applicable to the putative diagnostics of prion protein in body fluids. 

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