TY - JOUR AU - Douet, Jean AU - Lacroux, Caroline AU - Aron, Naima AU - Head, Mark AU - Lugan, Séverine AU - Tillier, Cécile AU - Huor, Alvina AU - Cassard, Hervé AU - Arnold, Mark AU - Beringue, Vincent AU - Ironside, James AU - Andréoletti, Olivier T1 - Distribution and Quantitative Estimates of Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Prions in Tissues of Clinical and Asymptomatic Patients T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2017 VL - 23 IS - 6 SP - 946 SN - 1080-6059 AB - In the United-Kingdom, ≈1 of 2,000 persons could be infected with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). Therefore, risk of transmission of vCJD by medical procedures remains a major concern for public health authorities. In this study, we used in vitro amplification of prions by protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) to estimate distribution and level of the vCJD agent in 21 tissues from 4 patients who died of clinical vCJD and from 1 asymptomatic person with vCJD. PMCA identified major levels of vCJD prions in a range of tissues, including liver, salivary gland, kidney, lung, and bone marrow. Bioassays confirmed that the quantitative estimate of levels of vCJD prion accumulation provided by PMCA are indicative of vCJD infectivity levels in tissues. Findings provide critical data for the design of measures to minimize risk for iatrogenic transmission of vCJD. KW - prions and related diseases KW - variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease prions KW - variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease KW - vCJD KW - infectivity KW - tissues KW - clinical patients KW - asymptomatic patients KW - public health KW - United Kingdom KW - Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease KW - variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease KW - variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease prions KW - protein misfolding cyclic amplification KW - variant infectivity KW - intracerebral inoculation KW - meningitis/encephalitis KW - Scotland DO - 10.3201/eid2306.161734 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/23/6/16-1734_article ER - End of Reference