Failure to Demonstrate a Humoral Immune Response to Scrapie Infection in Mice

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Abstract
Although scrapie is clearly a transmissible disease caused by a small stable agent, previous conventional attempts to demonstrate humoral antibody have not met with success. In this study no evidence of humoral antibody to the scrapie agent was found in infected mice by regular or antiglobulin potentiated neutralization tests, indirect immunofluorescence tests employing various agent-containing targets, or by examining brains, spleens, and kidneys for the presence of immune complexes. The results suggest that scrapie infection is fundamentally different from slow or persistent virus infections in which humoral antibody may be demonstrated by the techniques used in this study.

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