文章基本信息

标题：Detection of chronic wasting disease in mule and white-tailed deer by RT-QuIC analysis of outer ear
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作者：Natalia C. Ferreira ; Jorge M. Charco ; Jakob Plagenz 等
期刊名称：Scientific Reports
电子版ISSN：2045-2322
出版年度：2021
卷号：11
DOI：10.1038/s41598-021-87295-8
语种：English
出版社：Springer Nature
摘要：Efforts to contain the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD), a fatal, contagious prion disease of cervids, would be aided by the availability of additional diagnostic tools. RT-QuIC assays allow ultrasensitive detection of prion seeds in a wide variety of cervid tissues, fluids and excreta. The best documented antemortem diagnostic test involving RT-QuIC analysis targets lymphoid tissue in rectal biopsies. Here we have tested a more easily accessed specimen, ear pinna punches, using an improved RT-QuIC assay involving iron oxide magnetic extraction to detect CWD infections in asymptomatic mule and white-tailed deer. Comparison of multiple parts of the ear pinna indicated that a central punch spanning the auricular nerve provided the most consistent detection of CWD infection. When compared to results obtained from gold-standard retropharyngeal lymph node specimens, our RT-QuIC analyses of ear samples provided apparent diagnostic sensitivity (81%) and specificity (91%) that rivaled, or improved upon, those observed in previous analyses of rectal biopsies using RT-QuIC. These results provide evidence that RT-QuIC analysis of ear pinna punches may be a useful approach to detecting CWD infections in cervids.