Patent ID: 7777011

Claim:
An isolated polyclonal antibody which specfically binds to a synthetic polypeptide comprising a sequence of SEQ. ID NO. 58 according to formula Vc: SEQ. ID NO. 58 X-(Gly-Gly-Gly-Trp)-Gly-Gln-Gly-Gly-R 24 -R 25 - (Vc) His-R 26 -Gln-Trp-Asn-Lys-Pro-R 27 -Lys-Pro-Lys-Thr- R 28 -R 29 -Lys(-His-R 30 -Ala-Gly)-Y: wherein R 24 is either Gly or absent; R 25 , is either Thr or Ser; R 26 is an amino acid residue selected from Gly, Ser and Asn; R 27 and R 28 are each independently either Asn or Ser; R 29 is an amino acid residue selected from Met, Leu and Phe; R 30 is either Val or Met; one or more residues within parenthesis may be present or absent with the proviso that if they are present they are attached to the rest of the peptide in sequence; and X and Y may each independently be absent or independently be one or more additional amino acid residues, with the proviso that when present neither X nor Y provide or form part of an antigenic property of the prion protein which, in the corresponding portion of sequence of a natural prion protein, is contiguous with the sequence to which X and Y are attached.