High levels of nervous system-specific proteins in cerebrospinal fluid in patients with early stage Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Concentrations of several proteins that are characteristic of the nervous system were time-sequentially analyzed by radio- and enzyme-immunoassay in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). We found abnormally high levels of several proteins, such as neuron-specific enolase (NSE), S-100b protein, brain-type isozyme of creatine kinase (CK-BB) and alpha subunit of GTP binding protein G0 (G0 alpha) in the early stage of the disease. Generally, these protein levels were far higher in CJD patients than in normal controls and other neurological patients in the early stage before the typical clinical manifestations were evident. These levels increased to maxima when the disease activity was most prominent and returned to normal or mildly elevated levels in the terminal stage. The results imply that these protein levels can serve as biochemical markers for the presence of an active destructive process in CJD brain and provide us with a useful indicator for early diagnosis of CJD.