Given the escalating concern over "Mad Cow disease," there is an urgent
need for reliable antemortem diagnostic tests for the prion diseases (e.g.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and bovine spongiform encephalopathy). The
development of such tests will likely rely on measurements of cerebrospinal
fluid protein expression because cerebrospinal fluid is not amenable to the
use of 'DNA chips' (there is little or no RNA) and because antemortem brain
biopsy is highly invasive. Using a proteomics strategy we have identified
the 14-3-3 protein as a sensitive (>96%) and specific (>99%) molecular
marker for antemortem Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. We have also recently
identified Apoliprotein E as a molecular marker capable of distinguishing
new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease from sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease and are working towards the identification of markers for
Alzheimer's disease
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