A Preliminary Study on the RT-QuIC Testing Method for the Diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease — Development and Use of a Self-made Recombinant Protein

DOI: 10.6524/EB.202501_41(2).0002

Chung-Te Huang, Jian-Liang Liu, Chien-Chou Lin^*

2025 Vol.41 NO.2

Correspondence Author： Chien-Chou Lin^*

Abstract：

        Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that requires long-term observation or invasive pathological examination for diagnosis. The development of RT-QuIC (real-time quaking-induced conversion) may reduce the need for invasive sampling of patients and has better sensitivity and specificity compared to traditional protein marker methods. Positive RT-QuIC has been recognized as a laboratory criterion in the case definition for probable CJD cases in countries including the United Kingdom and the United States. 
        In this study, a self-made recombinant protein (rPrP^C) platform capable of producing sufficient rPrPC for RT-QuIC testing was established. Cerebrospinal fluid samples from 2 probable and 2 excluded CJD cases were randomly selected for functional testing, and the results were consistent with diagnoses made by the CJD case review committee. In the future, retrospective testing will be conducted to establish a stable and validated RT-QuIC method as the standard for routine testing in CJD diagnosis.