Sklaviadis TK, Manuelidis L, Manuelidis EE.: Physical properties of the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease agent. J Virol. 1989, 63:1212-22.

PMID: 2492609 [PubMed - Free in PMC]

The first evidence for an infectious particle with a well-defined viral size and density.

Sklaviadis T, Dreyer R, Manuelidis L.: Analysis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease infectious fractions by gel permeation chromatography and sedimentation field flow fractionation. Virus Res. 1992, 26:241-54.

PMID: 1492497 [PubMed - Reprint available on request]

This paper shows with the then newly developed technique of field flow fractionation that more purified infectious particles in CJD band with 30nm diameter spheres. It also reports dense EM particles of the same diameter in infectious fractions.

Manuelidis L, Sklaviadis T, Akowitz A, Fritch W.: Viral particles are required for infection in neurodegenerative Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1995; 92:5124-8.

PMID: 7761460 [PubMed - Free in PMC]

This paper shows that when the 25-30nm viruslike particles are disrupted so that their nucleic acids are dissociated from protective proteins, their infectivity is lost.

Evolution of a strain of CJD that induces BSE-like plaques. Science. 1997;277:94-8.

PMID: 9204907 [PubMed – Free at Science]

This paper shows that a sporadic CJD strain can evolve into one that produces plaques, as in vCJD. This evolution implies there is a mutable nucleic acid genome that defines each TSE strain. A picture of the plaques produced by the altered strain is shown below:

A review of pertinent data including a commentary on the new prion language: Download (PDF)

A review on the reasons for further examining the 25nm viruslike particles identified in TSE brains and in highly infectious fractions: Download (PDF)