Application of protein amplification in vitro in the diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases

Patients with neurodegenerative diseases are usually in the end stage when they are diagnosed. The diagnosis of these diseases mainly depends on the differentiation of clinical symptoms, which causes certain difficulties in diagnosis. In the past few years, some new diagnostic approaches have been developed for the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases. Protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) and real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) are ultra-sensitive protein amplification assays for the detection of misfolded protein aggregates. With the improvement of these technologies, it has been gradually applied to detect the misfolded proteins in prion disease, synuclein disease, Alzheimer's disease and Pick's disease. PMCA and RT-QuIC have also shown high sensitivity and specificity in the pre-clinical stages, and can be used for differential diagnosis. As laboratory auxiliary diagnostic methods, PMCA and RT-QuIC have great application prospects.