British diagnostics company Microsens has developed the first blood test that can detect abnormal proteins that cause the human version of “mad cow disease,” the privately owned company said on Wednesday.
The firm’s Seprion technology can detect abnormal prions, a type of protein, in the blood of patients with so-called variant Creuzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), it said.
Britain destroyed 3.7 million cattle in the 1980s and 1990s after an epidemic of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), popularly dubbed “mad cow disease.” The disease has been linked to CJD, a condition that causes paralysis and death in humans.
Screening process needed
Although there have been relatively few deaths caused by eating contaminated meat, recent research has suggested the disease can lie dormant in the blood for years and that it can be passed on in a blood transfusion.
“With the recent publication of evidence showing vCJD present in human tissue samples and the ban of certain blood donors to avoid the risk of vCJD transmission, there is an obvious need to accelerate the development of a vCJD screening process in blood,” Microsens Chief Scientific Officer Stuart Wilson said in a statement.
Microsens plans to expand its research into the human blood test to include more samples.
It has already sold the rights to Seprion for use in a post-mortem test for BSE in cattle to Idexx Laboratories Inc in the United States.
