- Hello, Jeff
-
- The following data proves and acknowledges
the many statements and warnings we both made on your program and your
site years ago that PRIONS ARE IN SOIL, and are also in urine, blood, and
other bodily fluids.
-
- We were the first in national media to
have stated these facts. Wonder how many more lives would have been saved
had people paid attention...
-
- Patty
-
- Tracking Prions
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- A method to detect infectious
proteins in soils could
help monitor spread of the diseases they cause.
-
- By Steve Ritter
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- A method to extract and quantitatively
detect prions from soil samples has been devised by a team of scientists
at two National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) labs in France
(Environ. Sci. Technol. 2006, 40, 1497). The technique could be "a
good starting point" to help identify and map prion-contaminated farmland
as well as to monitor the fate of prions over time, notes lead author Peggy
Rigou.
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- Prions are malformed proteins that are
thought to be the infectious agents responsible for transmissible spongiform
encephalopathies (TSEs), such as mad cow disease, scrapie in sheep, and
chronic wasting disease in deer. Prions can persist in soil for years,
and some animals are suspected of contracting TSEs by drinking water or
grazing on ground that was exposed to the carcasses of dead animals; by-products
from animal processing; or animal manure, urine, or blood.
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- A potential method to detect prions in
the blood of live animals was reported last year (C&EN, Sept. 5, 2005,
page 15), but until now, a method to analyze prions in soil had not been
reported, Rigou says. The researchers studied the adsorption and desorption
of a recombinant prion protein and other proteins on clay and natural soil
samples to understand prion retention mechanisms. They determined that
adsorption occurs mainly via the N-terminal domain of the protein.
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- They then used a denaturing detergent
buffer to extract the prions, gel electrophoresis to concentrate samples,
and Western blot or ELISA immunoassays for quantitative detection. The
method allowed the detection of as little as 0.2 ppb of prions in soil.
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- INRA is looking at using the method for
general environmental monitoring of prions and possibly expanding the method
for decontamination of medical devices.
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- Chemical & Engineering News
- ISSN 0009-2347
- Copyright © 2006 American Chemical
Society
-
- http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/84/i09/8409prions.html
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