A highly sensitive diagnostic assay for aggregate-related diseases, including prion diseases and Alzheimer's disease

Prion diseases, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease are age-related neurodegenerative diseases that are characterized by the formation of protein aggregates during the progress of the disease. Although it is still not known whether these aggregates are causative for, or symptoms of, the disease. Many studies show that aggregates or even oligomers of the according proteins are neurotoxic and thus may lead to neurodegeneration. To understand disease-associated or causative mechanisms in respect to protein aggregation, an ultrasensitive tool to quantify these disease-related aggregates is required. In this study we introduce a specificity-enhanced version of surface-FIDA as an approach to count even single aggregates in tissue homogenate and body liquids.