RT-QuIC and Related Assays for Detecting and Quantifying Prion-like Pathological Seeds of α-Synuclein

oleh: Ankit Srivastava, Parvez Alam, Byron Caughey

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-04-01

Deskripsi

Various disease-associated forms or strains of α-synuclein (αSyn<sup>D</sup>) can spread and accumulate in a prion-like fashion during synucleinopathies such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), Lewy body dementia (DLB), and multiple system atrophy (MSA). This capacity for self-propagation has enabled the development of seed amplification assays (SAAs) that can detect αSyn<sup>D</sup> in clinical samples. Notably, α-synuclein real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) and protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) assays have evolved as ultrasensitive, specific, and relatively practical methods for detecting αSyn<sup>D</sup> in a variety of biospecimens including brain tissue, CSF, skin, and olfactory mucosa from synucleinopathy patients. However, αSyn SAAs still lack concordance in detecting MSA and familial forms of PD/DLB, and the assay parameters show poor correlations with various clinical measures. End-point dilution analysis in αSyn RT-QuIC assays allows for the quantitation of relative amounts of αSyn<sup>D</sup> seeding activity that may correlate moderately with clinical measures and levels of other biomarkers. Herein, we review recent advancements in α-synuclein SAAs for detecting αSyn<sup>D</sup> and describe in detail the modified Spearman–Karber quantification algorithm used with end-point dilutions.