Immunoquantitative PCR for prion protein detection in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Background: The most common human prion disorder is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD); it includes sporadic, familial, iatrogenic, and variant subtypes. Diagnostic tests aim at detection with the highest specificity of very small deposits of abnormal prion protein (PrP).

Methods: We used immunoquantitative PCR (iqPCR) to detect proteinase K-resistant PrP (PrPRes) in tissue from the middle frontal gyrus of 7 patients with sporadic CJD and 7 non-CJD cases.