A newly developed prion seeding assay called Real-Time Quaking Induced Conversion assay (RT-QuIC) now permits researchers to measure prion seeding at lower levels and in less than a few days in standard 96 well microplates

In contrast, animal bioassays, though they are sensitive enough, are more expensive and much slower—they can take years to complete. RT-QuIC is a sensitive, fast, and high throughput improvement on the previously employed methods of quaking-induced conversion (QuIC) (Atarashi 2008) and amyloid seeding assay (ASA) (Colby 2007).

In order to better understand the spread of various infectious prion diseases (Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies ), including those that affect humans (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)) or animals (i.e. Scrapie in sheep or Chronic Wasting Disease in deer), researchers need a better and faster way to quantitate the infectivity or number of prions in the infected host. RT-QuIC, when used on BMG LABTECH’s Omega Series of readers, helps solve this problem.

For RT-QuIC to be successfully performed in a microplate reader, three requirements need to be met:  the assay must be incubated at 42°C for the entire measurement period from 20-60 hours, it must have alternating cycles of one minute of shaking at high speed (700 RPM) and one minute of resting, and it must be measured every 15 minutes. BMG LABTECH microplate readers fulfill all three of these requirements. Our readers allow for incubation from room temperature to 65°C and they permit shaking at varying speeds up to 700 RPM and in three different patterns of orbital, linear, and a unique double orbital. Because users can customize any type of measurement, alternating a minute of shaking and a minute of resting with measurements at 15 minute intervals is no problem.  BMG LABTECH’s FLUOstar Omega and POLARstar Omega microplate readers have hardware and software that has been optimized for use with the RT-QuIC prion assay.

To learn more about this exciting new assay please see BMG LABTECH’s Application Note or the publication: Rapid End-Point Quantitation of Prion Seeding Activity with Sensitivity Comparable to Bioassays in PLoS Pathog 6(12): e1001217.

BMG LABTECH is a leading developer and global manufacturer of microplate reader instrumentation with a wide range of measurement methods. BMG LABTECH focuses solely on microplate readers and offers the most diverse selection of optical detection systems in conjunction with integrated liquid handling equipment. BMG LABTECH, the Microplate Reader Company, Engineering Brighter Solutions.