Figure 1: Overview of methods.

(a) Representative RT-QuIC fluorescence curve. As prion-enciphered amyloid is formed out of rPrPC substrate the RT-QuIC reaction transitions from lag phase to exponential phase. Amyloid formation is measured through thioflavin T (ThT) fluorescence emission as it binds amyloid. The Ct value is defined as the time (hours) for a positive RT-QuIC reaction to reach a predefined threshold (horizontal line), indicated by the red circle. The rate of amyloid formation is calculated as the inverse of Ct (1/h). (b) Schematic of FPE protein extraction method.