Method and monoclonal antibodies for differentiation between abnormal and normal prions

摘要

An anti-abnormal type prion monoclonal antibody which reacts with abnormal type prion but does not substantially react with normal type prion by a antigen-antibody reaction. The antibody originates from an animal immunized with an immunogen that includes a peptide consisting essentially of two or more regions present in the abnormal type prion. The regions are discontinuous from each other in the primary amino acid sequence of the abnormal type prion yet the regions are ligated to each other in the peptide of the immunogen. Preferably the peptide has the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:1 and/or SEQ ID NO:2. Also described are a method for measuring abnormal type prion by an immunoassay using the antibody and a method of producing the anti-abnormal type monoclonal antibody. The method comprises immunizing a non-human animal with an immunogen as described above, preparing hybridomas originating from antibody-producing cells of the immunized animals and screening for hydridomas which produces an anti- abnormal type prion monoclonal antibody and recovering the antibody from the hybridoma selected by the screening.