The Generative Brain

Nano-QuIC (silica nanoparticle enhanced RT-QuIC, University of Minnesota and Priogen)

Nano-QuIC is a modified RT-QuIC seed amplification test in which silica nanoparticles, about 50 nm across in the first paper, are added to the reaction to make it faster and more tolerant of substances in tissue and blood that normally block RT-QuIC. It was developed by an engineering and veterinary team at the University of Minnesota's prion centre (MNPRO) and first published in Nano Letters in April 2023 on chronic wasting disease (CWD) deer tissue. The same group then applied it to alpha-synuclein in blood, reporting work on Parkinson disease plasma in 2024 and an optimised plasma version in 2026. Priogen Corp, a university spinout whose co-founders include two of the senior authors, lists Nano-QuIC in its technology portfolio and sells Nano-QuIC kits for prion and Parkinson disease research. No study found has used Nano-QuIC on samples from people with CJD or any other human prion disease, and no regulatory clearance was found. It is a research method, not a clinical test. Information only, not medical advice.

Key facts

  • The first Nano-QuIC paper (Christenson et al., Nano Lett, online 26 April 2023) added 50 nm silica nanoparticles to RT-QuIC on CWD cervid samples and reported detection about 2.5 times faster and about 10 times more sensitive, by overcoming tissue inhibitors, with no false positives seen.
  • The university release says detection on deer tissue fell from about 14 hours to about 4, so a lab could run 3 to 4 tests per working day instead of 1; it was funded by Minnesota's Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund on LCCMR advice and two state agricultural research programmes.
  • The researchers said in 2023 that the method might later help detect Parkinson disease, CJD, Alzheimer disease and ALS in people, but gave no timeline and described no clinical study.
  • A blood version (preprint August 2023, Nano Lett November 2024) applied Nano-QuIC to alpha-synuclein. In spiked human plasma it ran about twice as fast and about 100 times more sensitively, and in lysed whole blood it detected seeds down to 90 pg/mL where standard RT-QuIC detected nothing because of inhibitors.
  • In the same paper plasma from 4 people with Parkinson disease showed more seeding activity than plasma from 4 controls; co-funders included the Michael J. Fox Foundation and NINDS. This is a very small comparison.
  • Jeong et al. (bioRxiv February 2026; npj Parkinsons Disease, online 29 July 2026, open access) tuned buffer pH, salt, detergent and shaking, and with silica nanoparticles detected alpha-synuclein oligomers spiked into human plasma at 100 pg/mL. Only the record and abstract were read; patient data, if any, are unknown.
  • A related capillary readout, Cap-QuIC (npj Biosensing, June 2024), detected misfolded prion protein and alpha-synuclein by eye without a plate reader and classified CWD deer tissue; Priogen lists it among its Nano-QuIC papers.
  • The Cap-QuIC record states that senior authors Peter Larsen and Sang-Hyun Oh are co-founders and stockholders of Priogen Corp and that the University of Minnesota has licensed patent applications to the company. All the published Nano-QuIC data so far come from this group.
  • Priogen describes Nano-QuIC as an assay that overcomes blood and tissue inhibitors for blood and tissue prion detection, and its store lists RT-QuIC and Nano-QuIC kits for human and animal prion disease and Parkinson disease research, with no price, intended use statement or regulatory claim on the page.
  • A Prion 2025 conference abstract, seen only as a search excerpt, reports preliminary use of Nano-QuIC against standard RT-QuIC on 18 CWD positive and 15 negative Norwegian reindeer, moose and red deer, with about 10 fold higher sensitivity in lymph node and brain and species dependent results in skin and lymph node.
  • A Europe PMC search for the term found no Nano-QuIC study on human prion disease samples as of 17 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2023First Nano-QuIC paper published online in Nano Letters (CWD tissue).
  2. 2023University of Minnesota release on Nano-QuIC republished.
  3. 2023Blood-based Nano-QuIC preprint posted on bioRxiv.
  4. 2024Cap-QuIC capillary readout paper published in npj Biosensing.
  5. 2024Blood-based Nano-QuIC paper on Parkinson disease plasma published in Nano Letters.
  6. 2025Preliminary Nano-QuIC results on Norwegian cervids presented at Prion 2025 (search excerpt only).
  7. 2026Optimised plasma Nano-QuIC preprint by Jeong et al. posted.
  8. 2026Jeong et al. published in npj Parkinsons Disease.
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