Methods of diagnosing ALS

摘要

The invention relates to an epitope protection assay for use in diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic intervention in diseases, for example, involving polypeptide aggregation, such as prion infections. The methods of the invention first block accessible polypeptide target epitope with a blocking agent. After denaturation of the polypeptide, a detecting agent is used to detect protein with target epitope that was inaccessible during contact with the blocking agent. The invention also relates to novel amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-specific epitopes and their uses to make antibodies, and to the novel antibodies and uses thereof.

主权项

1. A method of detecting or diagnosing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in a subject comprising the steps of:
(a) contacting a test sample of said subject with an antibody specific for an ALS-specific epitope, wherein the ALS-specific epitope is selected from the group consisting of:DLGKGGNEESTKTGNAGS;(SEQ ID NO: 1)andNPLSRKHGGPKDEE(SEQ ID NO: 2) to produce an antibody-antigen complex; (b) measuring the amount of the antibody-antigen complex in the test sample; and (c) comparing the amount of antibody-antigen complex in the test sample to a control; wherein a difference in the amount of antibody-antigen complex in the test sample as compared to the control is indicative of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.