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Development of Anti-Prion Surgical Instruments and Highly Sensitive Prion Diagnostic Probes by Ion Implantation Technique

AFM image of SiF3+ ion implanted stainless steel surfaces
AFM image of SiF3+ ion
implanted stainless
steel surfaces

An epidemic of a new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) was first described in the United Kingdom (UK) in 1996. It is known that transmission of prions has occurred via surgical instruments. The most effective generic approach to prevent vCJD transmission via surgical instruments is to remove all traces of prions at the washing phase of the decontamination process. Unfortunately it is very difficult to remove prions completely from stainless steel surfaces as they are readily and tightly bound to the surfaces. Prions also exhibit unusual resistance to conventional chemical and physical decontamination methods, and cannot readily be destroyed by conventional disinfection and sterilization methods.

Surgical instruments are reused often, and their time in service often exceeds 10 years. Each set of instruments over its lifetime will have come into contact with many patients, significantly increasing the risk of contamination. A new idea to prevent transmission of vCJD via surgical instruments is to minimise prion adhesion forces by altering the surface properties (e.g. surface energy ) of stainless steel using the ion implantation techniques, so that prions can be removed both easily and completely from stainless steel surfaces at the washing phase of the decontamination process. Depending on the ion implantation conditions, ion implantation of stainless steel surfaces could also increase prion adhesion (i.e. attract prions) considerably. The latter can be used to develop a novel, simple and highly sensitive needle-based prion diagnostic technique in both humans and animals.


Effect of surface energy on the adhesion of bovine fibrin
Effect of
surface energy
on the adhesion
of bovine fibrin

The basic idea is to make prion diagnostic probes more attractive to infectious prions, hence more prions will bind or attach on the probes. This will also increase the effectiveness and scope of existing experimental models. This research will be the first to explore new boundaries of prion adhesion and ion implantation in surgical instruments and prion diagnostic probes.


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