Microsens Demonstrates Ability to Detect CJD in Blood

Microsens, the specialist in the rapid and sensitive detection of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs), presented at the NeuroPrion Conference in Paris recently. Stuart Wilson, Chief Scientific Officer of Microsens described the Company’s technology which has demonstrated the ability to detect abnormal prion proteins in the blood of a patient with suspected Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).

This is the first time such detection has been announced. Microsens has developed a ligand-based technology, called Seprion, into a simple immunoassay. This technology is very selective towards recognising and binding tightly abnormal TSE proteins.

Through extensive trialling, it has been demonstrated to have an extremely high selectivity capability, ideal for detecting abnormal TSE proteins which occur at very low concentrations in the blood. Microsens used its Seprion technology to compare blood samples from a human patient with symptoms associated with CJD to control samples. At the same time, the Company also tested and compared blood samples from Scrapie-infected sheep to controls. In all cases, the Seprion technology detected the abnormal TSE proteins linked with disease.

This is the first time a blood test has successfully demonstrated the detection of these abnormal prion proteins in both humans and animals. The Company is currently expanding its studies to include more samples. Seprion has already been licensed by Microsens to Idexx Laboratories, Inc. in the USA for incorporation into a post-mortem BSE test and to Sanko Junyaku in Japan. A natural extension of the product is for the screening of human blood for vCJD. As a model for the detection of vCJD, the Company has data demonstrating the detection of prions in both symptomatic and pre-symptomatic (apparently healthy) sheep.

At present, the market, primarily in Europe and Japan, for post mortem BSE test kits for cattle exceeds US$ 125 million; the Company believes that this market will grow significantly within the next 3-5 years. In North America, there is increasing concern over BSE, with the first detected case in 2003 which has already caused the level of testing by the US and Canadian governments to rise.