Development of Diagnostic Method for Unconventional Agent (Scrapie Gagent) Infection.

研究了羊淋巴网状器官中由痒病相关原纤维组成的蛋白（PrP）作为诊断工具的有效性。兔-羊PrP多克隆抗体Western blot检测。在表现出自然痒病感染临床症状的6只羊中，有5只羊的中枢神经系统样本、4只羊的脾脏样本和3只羊的淋巴结样本中检测到PrP。在6只羊的脾脏和淋巴结样本中检测到PrP，但在临床和组织病理学异常的1只羊的中枢神经系统样本中未检测到PrP。这只动物似乎处于该病的早期临床阶段。对47只临床正常羊进行了PrP检测。在47只羊中的3只羊的脾脏样本和37只羊中的3只羊的淋巴结样本中检测到该病毒。同样，接种14个月后，在3只实验感染羊的其中一只手术获得的淋巴结样本中检测到PrP。prp阳性羊和其余一只prp阴性羊分别在6个月和5个月后出现痒病的临床症状。实验感染18个月后处死的1只羊中枢神经系统、脾脏和淋巴结PrP阳性，感染2、8、16、18和21个月后处死或死亡的5只羊PrP阴性或可疑。

The usefulness of detecting the protein (PrP) consisting of scrapie-associated fibrils in the lymphoreticular organs of sheep as a diagnostic tool was investigated. The PrP was detected by means of a rabbit-anti-sheep PrP polyclonal antibody by Western blot analysis. PrP was detected in samples from the central nervous system of five of six sheep showing clinical signs of natural scrapie infection, in spleen samples from four of the six sheep and in lymph node samples taken from three of the sheep. PrP was detected in the spleen and lymph node samples, but not in the central nervous system samples from one of the six sheep that was clinically and histopathologically abnormal. This animal appeared to be in the early clinical stage of the disease. A total of 47 clinically normal sheep were examined for the presence of PrP. It was detected in spleen samples from three of the 47 sheep and in lymph node samples from three of the 37 sheep tested. Similarly, PrP was detected in a samples of lymph node obtained surgically from one of three experimentally infected sheep 14 months after inoculation. The PrP-positive sheep and one of the remaining PrP-negative sheep showed clinical signs of scrapie six and five months later respectively. One sheep sacrificed 18 months after experimental infection was positive for PrP in the central nervous system, spleen and lymph node, but five other sheep which were sacrificed or died two, eight, 16, 18 and 21 months after infection were negative or doubtful for the detection of PrP.