Abstract
1 NMR Unit, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, Du Cane Road, London W12 0HS
2 Department of Chemistry, Queen Mary and Westfield College, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS
3 AFRC Institute of Food Research, Norwich Laboratory, Norwich Science Park, Colney, Norwich NR4 7UA
and4 AFRC Institute for Animal Health, ARFC & MRC Neuropathogenesis Unit, Ogston Building, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JF, U.K.
In vivo proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy studies of scrapie in a mouse model have shown the appearance of an abnormal peak in the brain early in the incubation period. This abnormal peak was detected weeks before the detection of a protease-resistant form of a membrane protein and vacuolar histopathology in vitro, and several months before clinical signs, and the signal increased in intensity as the disease progressed. In the chronic stage of the disease, a reduction in N-acetyl aspartate levels was observed using in vivo and in vitro proton NMR spectroscopy.