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Prins S, Hamer K, Cloquell A, Spiropoulos J, Sargison N, Vellema P. MRI changes observed in a case of atypical scrapie in a 7-year-old Herdwick ewe. J Vet Diagn Invest 2024:10406387241267849. [PMID: 39243116 DOI: 10.1177/10406387241267849] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Atypical scrapie is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy that is rarely diagnosed in living animals. In March 2022, a 7-y-old Herdwick ewe was referred to the Scottish Centre for Production Animal Health and Food Safety because of circling behavior and ill thrift. The ewe had a low body condition score, was obtunded, with a wide-based stance of the pelvic limbs, and was circling to the left. Hematologic, biochemical, and CSF analyses were unremarkable, but postmortem magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings were consistent with diffuse, bilateral, and symmetrical atrophy of the forebrain and ventriculomegaly. The clinical signs, the involvement of an individual older ewe, and the MRI results led to the clinical diagnosis of scrapie. Immunohistochemistry on the fixed brain, performed by the U.K. Animal and Plant Health Agency, revealed deposits of PrPSc, which is a specific disease marker of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, mainly in the cerebellum and at lower concentrations in the cerebrum and obex, consistent with the diagnosis of atypical scrapie. MRI findings in a sheep with atypical scrapie have not been described previously, to our knowledge. Scrapie should be included in the list of clinical differential diagnoses when veterinarians are presented with sheep with progressive neurologic signs of several weeks' duration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sander Prins
- School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | - Kim Hamer
- School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | - Ana Cloquell
- School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | | | - Neil Sargison
- Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Easter Bush, Midlothian, UK
| | - Piet Vellema
- Department of Small Ruminant Health, Royal GD, Deventer, the Netherlands
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2
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Benestad SL, Tran L, Malzahn AM, Liland NS, Belghit I, Hagemann A. Retention of prions in the polychaete Hediste diversicolor and black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens, larvae after short-term experimental immersion and feeding with brain homogenate from scrapie infected sheep. Heliyon 2024; 10:e34848. [PMID: 39170463 PMCID: PMC11336280 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e34848] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2024] [Revised: 07/16/2024] [Accepted: 07/17/2024] [Indexed: 08/23/2024] Open
Abstract
Finding alternative protein and lipid sources for aquafeeds is crucial for the sustainable growth of fed aquaculture. Upcycling industrial side streams and byproducts using extractive species can reduce waste and help reduce the sector's dependence on fish meal and fish oils. Polychaete worms (Hediste diversicolor) and black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) larvae (BSFL) are promising candidates for converting waste materials into valuable protein and lipid sources. However, further research and evaluations are needed to ensure the safety and regulatory compliance of these alternative feed sources, especially regarding prions spreading potential in the unlikely case that prions would be introduced in the value chain via feedstocks. In the present investigation, BSFL and juvenile polychaetes that had received a massive dose of scrapie prions through immersion and oral inoculation were found to harbour detectable prions using an ultrasensitive amplification method known as PMCA. This observation suggests that both H. diversicolor and BSFL have the potential to serve as mechanical vectors for prions diseases. However, it is important to note that insects, lacking the prion protein gene, are incapable of propagating prions. Therefore, the quantity of prions present in the larvae will inevitably be lower than the amount of prions they encountered. This is the first study to report on the fate of prions through ingestion by these marine and terrestrial invertebrate species.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Linh Tran
- Norwegian Veterinary Institute, P.O. Box 64, 1431, Ås, Norway
| | - Arne M. Malzahn
- SINTEF Ocean, Department of Fisheries and New Biomarine Industry, Brattørkaia 17C, 7010, Trondheim, Norway
- Institute of Marine Ecosystem and Fishery Science, University of Hamburg, 22767, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Nina S. Liland
- Institute of Marine Research, P.O. Box 1870, Nordnes, 5817, Bergen, Norway
| | - Ikram Belghit
- Institute of Marine Research, P.O. Box 1870, Nordnes, 5817, Bergen, Norway
| | - Andreas Hagemann
- SINTEF Ocean, Department of Fisheries and New Biomarine Industry, Brattørkaia 17C, 7010, Trondheim, Norway
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3
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Ferrari C, Punturiero C, Milanesi R, Delledonne A, Bagnato A, Strillacci MG. Exploring the genetic variability of the PRNP gene at codons 127, 142, 146, 154, 211, 222, and 240 in goats farmed in the Lombardy Region, Italy. Vet Res 2024; 55:99. [PMID: 39107851 PMCID: PMC11304840 DOI: 10.1186/s13567-024-01353-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2024] [Accepted: 06/24/2024] [Indexed: 08/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Scrapie is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy affecting sheep and goats. The prion protein-encoding gene (PRNP) plays a crucial role in determining susceptibility and resistance to scrapie. At the European level, surveillance of scrapie is essential to prevent the spread of the disease to livestock. According to the Regulation EU 2020/772 polymorphisms K222, D/S146 could function as resistance alleles in the genetic management of disease prevention. In Italy, a breeding plan for scrapie eradication has not been implemented for goats. However, surveillance plans based on the PRNP genotype have been developed as a preventive measure for scrapie. This research aimed to describe the polymorphisms at 7 positions within the PRNP gene in 956 goats of the Alpine, Saanen and mixed populations farmed in the Lombardy Region in Italy. PRNP polymorphisms were detected using single nucleotide polymorphism markers included in the Neogen GGP Goat 70 k chip. The K222 allele occurred in all populations, with frequencies ranging from 2.1 to 12.7%. No animals carried the S/D146 resistance allele. However, it has been demonstrated that polymorphisms in the other positions analysed could influence resistance or susceptibility to scrapie outbreaks in different ways. Ten potentially distinct haplotypes were found, and the most prevalent of the three populations was H2, which differed from the wild type (H1) in terms of mutation (S vs P) at codon 240. This study provided additional information on the genetic variability of the PRNP gene in these populations in the Lombardy region of Italy, contributing to the development of genetic control measures for disease prevention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carlotta Ferrari
- Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via dell'Università 6, 26900, Lodi, Italy.
| | - Chiara Punturiero
- Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via dell'Università 6, 26900, Lodi, Italy
| | - Raffaella Milanesi
- Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via dell'Università 6, 26900, Lodi, Italy
| | - Andrea Delledonne
- Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via dell'Università 6, 26900, Lodi, Italy
| | - Alessandro Bagnato
- Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via dell'Università 6, 26900, Lodi, Italy
| | - Maria G Strillacci
- Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via dell'Università 6, 26900, Lodi, Italy
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4
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Mehra S, Bourkas ME, Kaczmarczyk L, Stuart E, Arshad H, Griffin JK, Frost KL, Walsh DJ, Supattapone S, Booth SA, Jackson WS, Watts JC. Convergent generation of atypical prions in knockin mouse models of genetic prion disease. J Clin Invest 2024; 134:e176344. [PMID: 39087478 PMCID: PMC11291267 DOI: 10.1172/jci176344] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2023] [Accepted: 06/11/2024] [Indexed: 08/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Most cases of human prion disease arise due to spontaneous misfolding of WT or mutant prion protein, yet recapitulating this event in animal models has proven challenging. It remains unclear whether spontaneous prion generation can occur within the mouse lifespan in the absence of protein overexpression and how disease-causing mutations affect prion strain properties. To address these issues, we generated knockin mice that express the misfolding-prone bank vole prion protein (BVPrP). While mice expressing WT BVPrP (I109 variant) remained free from neurological disease, a subset of mice expressing BVPrP with mutations (D178N or E200K) causing genetic prion disease developed progressive neurological illness. Brains from spontaneously ill knockin mice contained prion disease-specific neuropathological changes as well as atypical protease-resistant BVPrP. Moreover, brain extracts from spontaneously ill D178N- or E200K-mutant BVPrP-knockin mice exhibited prion seeding activity and transmitted disease to mice expressing WT BVPrP. Surprisingly, the properties of the D178N- and E200K-mutant prions appeared identical before and after transmission, suggesting that both mutations guide the formation of a similar atypical prion strain. These findings imply that knockin mice expressing mutant BVPrP spontaneously develop a bona fide prion disease and that mutations causing prion diseases may share a uniform initial mechanism of action.
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Affiliation(s)
- Surabhi Mehra
- Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases and
| | - Matthew E.C. Bourkas
- Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases and
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Lech Kaczmarczyk
- Wallenberg Center for Molecular Medicine, Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Bonn, Germany
| | - Erica Stuart
- Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases and
| | - Hamza Arshad
- Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases and
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | | | - Kathy L. Frost
- One Health Division, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
| | | | - Surachai Supattapone
- Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology and
- Department of Medicine, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
| | - Stephanie A. Booth
- One Health Division, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
| | - Walker S. Jackson
- Wallenberg Center for Molecular Medicine, Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Bonn, Germany
| | - Joel C. Watts
- Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases and
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Ernst S, Nonno R, Langeveld J, Andreoletti O, Acin C, Papasavva-Stylianou P, Sklaviadis T, Acutis PL, van Keulen L, Spiropoulos J, Keller M, Groschup MH, Fast C. Characterisation of European Field Goat Prion Isolates in Ovine PrP Overexpressing Transgenic Mice (Tgshp IX) Reveals Distinct Prion Strains. Pathogens 2024; 13:629. [PMID: 39204230 PMCID: PMC11357236 DOI: 10.3390/pathogens13080629] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2024] [Revised: 07/19/2024] [Accepted: 07/22/2024] [Indexed: 09/03/2024] Open
Abstract
After the detection of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), and a zoonotic transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) caused by the pathological prion protein (PrPSc) in two goats, the investigation of goat prions became of greater interest. Therefore, a broad collection of European goat TSE isolates, including atypical scrapie, CH1641 and goat BSE as reference prion strains were biochemically characterised and subsequently inoculated into seven rodent models for further analysis (already published results of this comprehensive study are reviewed here for comparative reasons). We report here the histopathological and immunohistochemical data of this goat TSE panel, obtained after the first passage in Tgshp IX (tg-shARQ) mice, which overexpress the ovine prion protein. In addition to the clear-cut discrimination of all reference prion strains from the classical scrapie (CS) isolates, we were further able to determine three categories of CS strains. The investigation further indicates the occurrence of sub-strains that slightly resemble distant TSE strains, such as BSE or CH1641, reinforcing the theory that CS is not a single strain but a mixture of sub-strains, existing at varying extents in one isolate. This study further proved that Tgshp IX is a potent and reliable tool for the in-depth characterisation of prion strains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sonja Ernst
- Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, 17493 Greifswald-Isle of Riems, Germany; (S.E.)
| | - Romolo Nonno
- Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 00161 Rome, Italy
| | - Jan Langeveld
- Wageningen BioVeterinary Research, Wageningen University & Research, P.O. Box 65, 8200 AB Lelystad, The Netherlands
| | - Olivier Andreoletti
- UMR INRAe/ENVT 1225, Interactions Hôtes Agents Pathogènes, Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse, 23 Chemin des Capelles, 31076 Toulouse, France
| | - Cristina Acin
- Centro de Encefalopatías y Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes, Universidad de Zaragoza IA2 IIS Aragón, C/ Miguel Servet 177, 50013 Zaragoza, Spain
| | | | - Theodoros Sklaviadis
- School of Pharmacy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University Campus, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Pier Luigi Acutis
- Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d’Aosta, Via Bologna 148, 10154 Torino, Italy
| | - Lucien van Keulen
- Wageningen BioVeterinary Research, Wageningen University & Research, P.O. Box 65, 8200 AB Lelystad, The Netherlands
| | - John Spiropoulos
- Department of Pathology and Animal Science, APHA Weybridge, Addlestone KT15 3NB, Surrey, UK
| | - Markus Keller
- Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, 17493 Greifswald-Isle of Riems, Germany; (S.E.)
| | - Martin H. Groschup
- Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, 17493 Greifswald-Isle of Riems, Germany; (S.E.)
| | - Christine Fast
- Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, 17493 Greifswald-Isle of Riems, Germany; (S.E.)
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6
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Arifin MI, Hannaoui S, Ng RA, Zeng D, Zemlyankina I, Ahmed-Hassan H, Schatzl HM, Kaczmarczyk L, Jackson WS, Benestad SL, Gilch S. Norwegian moose CWD induces clinical disease and neuroinvasion in gene-targeted mice expressing cervid S138N prion protein. PLoS Pathog 2024; 20:e1012350. [PMID: 38950080 PMCID: PMC11244775 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1012350] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2023] [Revised: 07/12/2024] [Accepted: 06/18/2024] [Indexed: 07/03/2024] Open
Abstract
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a prion disease affecting deer, elk and moose in North America and reindeer, moose and red deer in Northern Europe. Pathogenesis is driven by the accumulation of PrPSc, a pathological form of the host's cellular prion protein (PrPC), in the brain. CWD is contagious among North American cervids and Norwegian reindeer, with prions commonly found in lymphatic tissue. In Nordic moose and red deer CWD appears exclusively in older animals, and prions are confined to the CNS and undetectable in lymphatic tissues, indicating a sporadic origin. We aimed to determine transmissibility, neuroinvasion and lymphotropism of Nordic CWD isolates using gene-targeted mice expressing either wild-type (138SS/226QQ) or S138N (138NN/226QQ) deer PrP. When challenged with North American CWD strains, mice expressing S138N PrP did not develop clinical disease but harbored prion seeding activity in brain and spleen. Here, we infected these models intracerebrally or intraperitoneally with Norwegian moose, red deer and reindeer CWD isolates. The moose isolate was the first CWD type to cause full-blown disease in the 138NN/226QQ model in the first passage, with 100% attack rate and shortened survival times upon second passage. Furthermore, we detected prion seeding activity or PrPSc in brains and spinal cords, but not spleens, of 138NN/226QQ mice inoculated intraperitoneally with the moose isolate, providing evidence of prion neuroinvasion. We also demonstrate, for the first time, that transmissibility of the red deer CWD isolate was restricted to transgenic mice overexpressing elk PrPC (138SS/226EE), identical to the PrP primary structure of the inoculum. Our findings highlight that susceptibility to clinical disease is determined by the conformational compatibility between prion inoculum and host PrP primary structure. Our study indicates that neuroinvasion of Norwegian moose prions can occur without, or only very limited, replication in the spleen, an unprecedented finding for CWD.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Samia Hannaoui
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Raychal Ashlyn Ng
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Doris Zeng
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Irina Zemlyankina
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Hanaa Ahmed-Hassan
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
- Zoonoses Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
| | - Hermann M. Schatzl
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
- Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
- Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | | | | | | | - Sabine Gilch
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
- Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
- Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
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7
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Eraña H, Sampedro-Torres-Quevedo C, Charco JM, Díaz-Domínguez CM, Peccati F, San-Juan-Ansoleaga M, Vidal E, Gonçalves-Anjo N, Pérez-Castro MA, González-Miranda E, Piñeiro P, Fernández-Veiga L, Galarza-Ahumada J, Fernández-Muñoz E, Perez de Nanclares G, Telling G, Geijo M, Jiménez-Osés G, Castilla J. A Protein Misfolding Shaking Amplification-based method for the spontaneous generation of hundreds of bona fide prions. Nat Commun 2024; 15:2112. [PMID: 38459071 PMCID: PMC10923866 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46360-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2023] [Accepted: 02/23/2024] [Indexed: 03/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Prion diseases are a group of rapidly progressing neurodegenerative disorders caused by the misfolding of the endogenous prion protein (PrPC) into a pathogenic form (PrPSc). This process, despite being the central event underlying these disorders, remains largely unknown at a molecular level, precluding the prediction of new potential outbreaks or interspecies transmission incidents. In this work, we present a method to generate bona fide recombinant prions de novo, allowing a comprehensive analysis of protein misfolding across a wide range of prion proteins from mammalian species. We study more than 380 different prion proteins from mammals and classify them according to their spontaneous misfolding propensity and their conformational variability. This study aims to address fundamental questions in the prion research field such as defining infectivity determinants, interspecies transmission barriers or the structural influence of specific amino acids and provide invaluable information for future diagnosis and therapy applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hasier Eraña
- Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC BioGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades infecciosas (CIBERINFEC), Carlos III National Health Institute, Madrid, Spain
- ATLAS Molecular Pharma S. L, Derio, Spain
| | | | - Jorge M Charco
- Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC BioGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades infecciosas (CIBERINFEC), Carlos III National Health Institute, Madrid, Spain
- ATLAS Molecular Pharma S. L, Derio, Spain
| | - Carlos M Díaz-Domínguez
- Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC BioGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades infecciosas (CIBERINFEC), Carlos III National Health Institute, Madrid, Spain
| | - Francesca Peccati
- Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC BioGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Spain
| | - Maitena San-Juan-Ansoleaga
- Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC BioGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Spain
| | - Enric Vidal
- IRTA. Programa de Sanitat Animal. Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA). Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain
- Unitat mixta d'Investigació IRTA-UAB en Sanitat Animal. Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA). Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Nuno Gonçalves-Anjo
- Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC BioGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Spain
| | - Miguel A Pérez-Castro
- Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC BioGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Spain
| | - Ezequiel González-Miranda
- Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC BioGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Spain
| | - Patricia Piñeiro
- Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC BioGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Spain
| | - Leire Fernández-Veiga
- Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC BioGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Spain
| | - Josu Galarza-Ahumada
- Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC BioGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Spain
| | - Eva Fernández-Muñoz
- Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC BioGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Spain
| | - Guiomar Perez de Nanclares
- Molecular (Epi)Genetics Laboratory, Bioaraba Health Research Institute, Araba University Hospital, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
| | - Glenn Telling
- Prion Research Center, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | - Mariví Geijo
- Animal Health Department, NEIKER-Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and Development. Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Spain
| | - Gonzalo Jiménez-Osés
- Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC BioGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Spain
- IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain
| | - Joaquín Castilla
- Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC BioGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Spain.
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades infecciosas (CIBERINFEC), Carlos III National Health Institute, Madrid, Spain.
- IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain.
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8
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Simmons SM, Bartz JC. Strain-Specific Targeting and Destruction of Cells by Prions. BIOLOGY 2024; 13:57. [PMID: 38275733 PMCID: PMC10813089 DOI: 10.3390/biology13010057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2023] [Revised: 01/11/2024] [Accepted: 01/17/2024] [Indexed: 01/27/2024]
Abstract
Prion diseases are caused by the disease-specific self-templating infectious conformation of the host-encoded prion protein, PrPSc. Prion strains are operationally defined as a heritable phenotype of disease under controlled conditions. One of the hallmark phenotypes of prion strain diversity is tropism within and between tissues. A defining feature of prion strains is the regional distribution of PrPSc in the CNS. Additionally, in both natural and experimental prion disease, stark differences in the tropism of prions in secondary lymphoreticular system tissues occur. The mechanism underlying prion tropism is unknown; however, several possible hypotheses have been proposed. Clinical target areas are prion strain-specific populations of neurons within the CNS that are susceptible to neurodegeneration following the replication of prions past a toxic threshold. Alternatively, the switch from a replicative to toxic form of PrPSc may drive prion tropism. The normal form of the prion protein, PrPC, is required for prion formation. More recent evidence suggests that it can mediate prion and prion-like disease neurodegeneration. In vitro systems for prion formation have indicated that cellular cofactors contribute to prion formation. Since these cofactors can be strain specific, this has led to the hypothesis that the distribution of prion formation cofactors can influence prion tropism. Overall, there is evidence to support several mechanisms of prion strain tropism; however, a unified theory has yet to emerge.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jason C. Bartz
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Creighton University, Omaha, NE 68178, USA;
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9
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Hopp P, Rolandsen CM, Korpenfelt SL, Våge J, Sörén K, Solberg EJ, Averhed G, Pusenius J, Rosendal T, Ericsson G, Bakka HC, Mysterud A, Gavier-Widén D, Hautaniemi M, Ågren E, Isomursu M, Madslien K, Benestad SL, Nöremark M. Sporadic cases of chronic wasting disease in old moose - an epidemiological study. J Gen Virol 2024; 105. [PMID: 38265285 DOI: 10.1099/jgv.0.001952] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies or prion diseases comprise diseases with different levels of contagiousness under natural conditions. The hypothesis has been raised that the chronic wasting disease (CWD) cases detected in Nordic moose (Alces alces) may be less contagious, or not contagious between live animals under field conditions. This study aims to investigate the epidemiology of CWD cases detected in moose in Norway, Sweden and Finland using surveillance data from 2016 to 2022.In total, 18 CWD cases were detected in Nordic moose. All moose were positive for prion (PrPres) detection in the brain, but negative in lymph nodes, all were old (mean 16 years; range 12-20) and all except one, were female. Age appeared to be a strong risk factor, and the sex difference may be explained by few males reaching high age due to hunting targeting calves, yearlings and males.The cases were geographically scattered, distributed over 15 municipalities. However, three cases were detected in each of two areas, Selbu in Norway and Arjeplog-Arvidsjaur in Sweden. A Monte Carlo simulation approach was applied to investigate the likelihood of such clustering occurring by chance, given the assumption of a non-contagious disease. The empirical P-value for obtaining three cases in one Norwegian municipality was less than 0.05, indicating clustering. However, the moose in Selbu were affected by different CWD strains, and over a 6 year period with intensive surveillance, the apparent prevalence decreased, which would not be expected for an ongoing outbreak of CWD. Likewise, the three cases in Arjeplog-Arvidsjaur could also indicate clustering, but management practices promotes a larger proportion of old females and the detection of the first CWD case contributed to increased awareness and sampling.The results of our study show that the CWD cases detected so far in Nordic moose have a different epidemiology compared to CWD cases reported from North America and in Norwegian reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus). The results support the hypothesis that these cases are less contagious or not contagious between live animals under field conditions. To enable differentiation from other types of CWD, we support the use of sporadic CWD (sCWD) among the names already in use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Petter Hopp
- Norwegian Veterinary Institute, P.O. Box 64, NO-1431 Ås, Norway
| | - Christer Moe Rolandsen
- Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), P.O. Box 5685 Torgarden, NO-7485 Trondheim, Norway
| | | | - Jørn Våge
- Norwegian Veterinary Institute, P.O. Box 64, NO-1431 Ås, Norway
| | - Kaisa Sörén
- National Veterinary Institute (SVA), Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Erling Johan Solberg
- Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), P.O. Box 5685 Torgarden, NO-7485 Trondheim, Norway
| | | | - Jyrki Pusenius
- Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE), Yliopistokatu 6, FI-80100 Joensuu, Finland
| | | | - Göran Ericsson
- Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Umeå, Sweden
| | - Haakon Christopher Bakka
- Norwegian Veterinary Institute, P.O. Box 64, NO-1431 Ås, Norway
- Present address: Kontali, Fred Olsens gate 1, NO-0152 Oslo, Norway
| | - Atle Mysterud
- Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1066 Blindern, NO-0316 Oslo, Norway
| | | | | | - Erik Ågren
- National Veterinary Institute (SVA), Uppsala, Sweden
| | | | - Knut Madslien
- Norwegian Veterinary Institute, P.O. Box 64, NO-1431 Ås, Norway
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10
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Ness A, Aiken J, McKenzie D. Sheep scrapie and deer rabies in England prior to 1800. Prion 2023; 17:7-15. [PMID: 36654484 PMCID: PMC9858414 DOI: 10.1080/19336896.2023.2166749] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Eighteenth-century England witnessed the emergence of two neurological diseases in animals. Scrapie, a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease of sheep and goats that appears in classical and atypical forms. Reports of classical scrapie in continental Europe with described symptoms date back to 1750 in what is now western Poland. However, two major outbreaks of scrapie appeared in England prior to the 1800s. References to a sheep disease with a resemblance to scrapie first appear in Southwestern England between 1693 and 1722 and in the East Midlands between 1693 and 1706. Concurrent with the descriptions of scrapie in sheep was a neurological disease of deer first appearing in the East of England. Two 18th-century writers remarked on the symptomatic similarities between the sheep and deer neurological diseases. Multiple outbreaks of the unknown deer disease existing as early as 1772 are examined and are identified as rabies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anthony Ness
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada,Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Judd Aiken
- Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada,Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Debbie McKenzie
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada,Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada,CONTACT Debbie McKenzie Centre for Prion and Protein Folding Diseases, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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11
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Kokemuller RD, Moore SJ, Bian J, West Greenlee MH, Greenlee JJ. Disease phenotype of classical sheep scrapie is changed upon experimental passage through white-tailed deer. PLoS Pathog 2023; 19:e1011815. [PMID: 38048370 PMCID: PMC10721168 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1011815] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2023] [Revised: 12/14/2023] [Accepted: 11/09/2023] [Indexed: 12/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Prion agents occur in strains that are encoded by the structure of the misfolded prion protein (PrPSc). Prion strains can influence disease phenotype and the potential for interspecies transmission. Little is known about the potential transmission of prions between sheep and deer. Previously, the classical US scrapie isolate (No.13-7) had a 100% attack rate in white-tailed deer after oronasal challenge. The purpose of this study was to test the susceptibility of sheep to challenge with the scrapie agent after passage through white-tailed deer (WTD scrapie). Lambs of various prion protein genotypes were oronasally challenged with WTD scrapie. Sheep were euthanized and necropsied upon development of clinical signs or at the end of the experiment (72 months post-inoculation). Enzyme immunoassay, western blot, and immunohistochemistry demonstrated PrPSc in 4 of 10 sheep with the fastest incubation occurring in VRQ/VRQ sheep, which contrasts the original No.13-7 inoculum with a faster incubation in ARQ/ARQ sheep. Shorter incubation periods in VRQ/VRQ sheep than ARQ/ARQ sheep after passage through deer was suggestive of a phenotype change, so comparisons were made in ovinized mice and with sheep with known strains of classical sheep scrapie: No. 13-7 and x-124 (that has a more rapid incubation in VRQ/VRQ sheep). After mouse bioassay, the WTD scrapie and x-124 isolates have similar incubation periods and PrPSc conformational stability that are markedly different than the original No. 13-7 inoculum. Furthermore, brain tissues of sheep with WTD scrapie and x-124 scrapie have similar patterns of immunoreactivity that are distinct from sheep with No. 13-7 scrapie. Multiple lines of evidence suggest a phenotype switch when No. 13-7 scrapie prions are passaged through deer. This represents one example of interspecies transmission of prions resulting in the emergence or selection of new strain properties that could confound disease eradication and control efforts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robyn D. Kokemuller
- Virus and Prion Research Unit, National Animal Disease Center, USDA, ARS, Ames, Iowa, United States of America
| | - S. Jo Moore
- Virus and Prion Research Unit, National Animal Disease Center, USDA, ARS, Ames, Iowa, United States of America
| | - Jifeng Bian
- Virus and Prion Research Unit, National Animal Disease Center, USDA, ARS, Ames, Iowa, United States of America
| | - M. Heather West Greenlee
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine, Ames, Iowa, United States of America
| | - Justin J. Greenlee
- Virus and Prion Research Unit, National Animal Disease Center, USDA, ARS, Ames, Iowa, United States of America
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12
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Thackray AM, McNulty EE, Nalls AV, Cardova A, Tran L, Telling G, Benestad SL, Gilch S, Mathiason CK, Bujdoso R. Genetic modulation of CWD prion propagation in cervid PrP Drosophila. Biochem J 2023; 480:1485-1501. [PMID: 37747806 PMCID: PMC10586768 DOI: 10.1042/bcj20230247] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2023] [Revised: 09/21/2023] [Accepted: 09/25/2023] [Indexed: 09/27/2023]
Abstract
Chronic wasting disease is a fatal prion condition of cervids such as deer, elk, moose and reindeer. Secretion and excretion of prion infectivity from North American cervids with this condition causes environmental contamination and subsequent efficient lateral transmission in free-ranging and farmed cervids. Variants of cervid PrP exist that affect host susceptibility to chronic wasting disease. Cervid breeding programmes aimed at increasing the frequency of PrP variants associated with resistance to chronic wasting disease may reduce the burden of this condition in animals and lower the risk of zoonotic disease. This strategy requires a relatively rapid and economically viable model system to characterise and support selection of prion disease-modifying cervid PrP variants. Here, we generated cervid PrP transgenic Drosophila to fulfil this purpose. We have generated Drosophila transgenic for S138 wild type cervid PrP, or the N138 variant associated with resistance to chronic wasting disease. We show that cervid PrP Drosophila accumulate bona fide prion infectivity after exposure to cervid prions. Furthermore, S138 and N138 PrP fly lines are susceptible to cervid prion isolates from either North America or Europe when assessed phenotypically by accelerated loss of locomotor ability or survival, or biochemically by accumulation of prion seeding activity. However, after exposure to European reindeer prions, N138 PrP Drosophila accumulated prion seeding activity with slower kinetics than the S138 fly line. These novel data show that prion susceptibility characteristics of cervid PrP variants are maintained when expressed in Drosophila, which highlights this novel invertebrate host in modelling chronic wasting disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alana M. Thackray
- Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ES, U.K
| | - Erin E. McNulty
- Prion Research Center (PRC) and the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, U.S.A
| | - Amy V. Nalls
- Prion Research Center (PRC) and the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, U.S.A
| | - Alzbeta Cardova
- Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ES, U.K
| | - Linh Tran
- Department of Biohazard and Pathology, WOAH Reference Laboratory for CWD (SLB), National Veterinary Institute, Postboks 64, 1431 Ås, Norway
| | - Glenn Telling
- Prion Research Center (PRC) and the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, U.S.A
| | - Sylvie L. Benestad
- Department of Biohazard and Pathology, WOAH Reference Laboratory for CWD (SLB), National Veterinary Institute, Postboks 64, 1431 Ås, Norway
| | - Sabine Gilch
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, AB T2N 4N1, Canada
| | - Candace K. Mathiason
- Prion Research Center (PRC) and the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, U.S.A
| | - Raymond Bujdoso
- Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ES, U.K
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13
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Betancor M, Marín B, Otero A, Hedman C, Romero A, Barrio T, Sevilla E, Douet JY, Huor A, Badiola JJ, Andréoletti O, Bolea R. Detection of classical BSE prions in asymptomatic cows after inoculation with atypical/Nor98 scrapie. Vet Res 2023; 54:89. [PMID: 37794450 PMCID: PMC10548751 DOI: 10.1186/s13567-023-01225-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2023] [Accepted: 09/19/2023] [Indexed: 10/06/2023] Open
Abstract
The emergence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) prions from atypical scrapie has been recently observed upon experimental transmission to rodent and swine models. This study aimed to assess whether the inoculation of atypical scrapie could induce BSE-like disease in cattle. Four calves were intracerebrally challenged with atypical scrapie. Animals were euthanized without clinical signs of prion disease and tested negative for PrPSc accumulation by immunohistochemistry and western blotting. However, an emergence of BSE-like prion seeding activity was detected during in vitro propagation of brain samples from the inoculated animals. These findings suggest that atypical scrapie may represent a potential source of BSE infection in cattle.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marina Betancor
- Centro de Encefalopatías y Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes, Facultad de Veterinaria, Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón - IA2, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50013, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Belén Marín
- Centro de Encefalopatías y Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes, Facultad de Veterinaria, Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón - IA2, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50013, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Alicia Otero
- Centro de Encefalopatías y Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes, Facultad de Veterinaria, Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón - IA2, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50013, Zaragoza, Spain.
| | - Carlos Hedman
- Centro de Encefalopatías y Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes, Facultad de Veterinaria, Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón - IA2, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50013, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Antonio Romero
- Servicio de Cirugía y Medicina Equina, Hospital Veterinario, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50013, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Tomás Barrio
- UMR INRAE ENVT 1225 Interactions Hôtes-Agents Pathogènes, École Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse, 31076, Toulouse, France
| | - Eloisa Sevilla
- Centro de Encefalopatías y Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes, Facultad de Veterinaria, Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón - IA2, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50013, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Jean-Yves Douet
- UMR INRAE ENVT 1225 Interactions Hôtes-Agents Pathogènes, École Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse, 31076, Toulouse, France
| | - Alvina Huor
- UMR INRAE ENVT 1225 Interactions Hôtes-Agents Pathogènes, École Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse, 31076, Toulouse, France
| | - Juan José Badiola
- Centro de Encefalopatías y Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes, Facultad de Veterinaria, Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón - IA2, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50013, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Olivier Andréoletti
- UMR INRAE ENVT 1225 Interactions Hôtes-Agents Pathogènes, École Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse, 31076, Toulouse, France
| | - Rosa Bolea
- Centro de Encefalopatías y Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes, Facultad de Veterinaria, Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón - IA2, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50013, Zaragoza, Spain
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14
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Sola D, Tran L, Våge J, Madslien K, Vuong TT, Korpenfelt SL, Ågren EO, Averhed G, Nöremark M, Sörén K, Isaksson M, Acín C, Badiola JJ, Gavier-Widén D, Benestad SL. Heterogeneity of pathological prion protein accumulation in the brain of moose (Alces alces) from Norway, Sweden and Finland with chronic wasting disease. Vet Res 2023; 54:74. [PMID: 37684668 PMCID: PMC10492377 DOI: 10.1186/s13567-023-01208-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2023] [Accepted: 07/27/2023] [Indexed: 09/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Prion diseases are a group of neurodegenerative, transmissible, and fatal disorders that affect several animal species. They are characterized by the conformational conversion of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) into the pathological prion protein (PrPSc). In 2016, chronic wasting disease (CWD) gained great importance at European level due to the first disease detection in a wild reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) in Norway. The subsequent intensive CWD surveillance launched in cervids resulted in the detection of CWD in moose (Alces alces), with 11 cases in Norway, 3 in Finland and 4 in Sweden. These moose cases differ considerably from CWD cases in North American and reindeer in Norway, as PrPSc was detectable in the brain but not in lymphoid tissues. These facts suggest the occurrence of a new type of CWD. Here, we show some immunohistochemical features that are clearly different from CWD cases in North American and Norwegian reindeer. Further, the different types of PrPSc deposits found among moose demonstrate strong variations between the cases, supporting the postulation that these cases could carry multiple strains of CWD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diego Sola
- Centro de Encefalopatías Y Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes, Universidad de Zaragoza, IA2, IIS Aragón, 50013, Zaragoza, Spain.
| | - Linh Tran
- WOAH Reference Laboratory for CWD (SLB), Norwegian Veterinary Institute (NVI), Postboks 64, 1431, Ås, Ås, Norway
| | - Jørn Våge
- WOAH Reference Laboratory for CWD (SLB), Norwegian Veterinary Institute (NVI), Postboks 64, 1431, Ås, Ås, Norway
| | - Knut Madslien
- WOAH Reference Laboratory for CWD (SLB), Norwegian Veterinary Institute (NVI), Postboks 64, 1431, Ås, Ås, Norway
| | - Tram T Vuong
- WOAH Reference Laboratory for CWD (SLB), Norwegian Veterinary Institute (NVI), Postboks 64, 1431, Ås, Ås, Norway
| | | | - Erik O Ågren
- National Veterinary Institute (SVA), 75189, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Gustav Averhed
- National Veterinary Institute (SVA), 75189, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Maria Nöremark
- National Veterinary Institute (SVA), 75189, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Kaisa Sörén
- National Veterinary Institute (SVA), 75189, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Mats Isaksson
- National Veterinary Institute (SVA), 75189, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Cristina Acín
- Centro de Encefalopatías Y Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes, Universidad de Zaragoza, IA2, IIS Aragón, 50013, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Juan José Badiola
- Centro de Encefalopatías Y Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes, Universidad de Zaragoza, IA2, IIS Aragón, 50013, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Dolores Gavier-Widén
- National Veterinary Institute (SVA), 75189, Uppsala, Sweden
- Department of Biomedical Sciences and Veterinary Public Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Box 7028, 75007, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Sylvie L Benestad
- WOAH Reference Laboratory for CWD (SLB), Norwegian Veterinary Institute (NVI), Postboks 64, 1431, Ås, Ås, Norway
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15
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Block AJ, Bartz JC. Prion strains: shining new light on old concepts. Cell Tissue Res 2023; 392:113-133. [PMID: 35796874 PMCID: PMC11318079 DOI: 10.1007/s00441-022-03665-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2022] [Accepted: 06/23/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
Prion diseases are a group of inevitably fatal neurodegenerative disorders affecting numerous mammalian species, including humans. The existence of heritable phenotypes of disease in the natural host suggested that prions exist as distinct strains. Transmission of sheep scrapie to rodent models accelerated prion research, resulting in the isolation and characterization of numerous strains with distinct characteristics. These strains are grouped into categories based on the incubation period of disease in different strains of mice and also by how stable the strain properties were upon serial passage. These classical studies defined the host and agent parameters that affected strain properties, and, prior to the advent of the prion hypothesis, strain properties were hypothesized to be the result of mutations in a nucleic acid genome of a conventional pathogen. The development of the prion hypothesis challenged the paradigm of infectious agents, and, initially, the existence of strains was difficult to reconcile with a protein-only agent. In the decades since, much evidence has revealed how a protein-only infectious agent can perform complex biological functions. The prevailing hypothesis is that strain-specific conformations of PrPSc encode prion strain diversity. This hypothesis can provide a mechanism to explain the observed strain-specific differences in incubation period of disease, biochemical properties of PrPSc, tissue tropism, and subcellular patterns of pathology. This hypothesis also explains how prion strains mutate, evolve, and adapt to new species. These concepts are applicable to prion-like diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, where evidence of strain diversity is beginning to emerge.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alyssa J Block
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Creighton University, 2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE, 68178, USA
| | - Jason C Bartz
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Creighton University, 2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE, 68178, USA.
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16
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Sun JL, Telling GC. New developments in prion disease research using genetically modified mouse models. Cell Tissue Res 2023; 392:33-46. [PMID: 36929219 DOI: 10.1007/s00441-023-03761-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2022] [Accepted: 03/03/2023] [Indexed: 03/18/2023]
Abstract
While much of what we know about the general principles of protein-based information transfer derives from studies of experimentally adapted rodent prions, these laboratory strains are limited in their ability to recapitulate features of human and animal prions and the diseases they produce. Here, we review how recent approaches using genetically modified mice have informed our understanding of naturally occurring prion diseases, their strain properties, and the factors controlling their transmission and evolution. In light of the increasing importance of chronic wasting disease, the application of mouse transgenesis to study this burgeoning and highly contagious prion disorder, in particular recent insights derived from gene-targeting approaches, will be a major focus of this review.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julianna L Sun
- Prion Research Center, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, USA
| | - Glenn C Telling
- Prion Research Center, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, USA.
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17
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Fast C, Graham C, Kaatz M, Santiago-Mateo K, Kaatz T, MacPherson K, Balkema-Buschmann A, Ziegler U, Groschup MH, Czub S. Discrimination of Classical and Atypical BSE by a Distinct Immunohistochemical PrP Sc Profile. Pathogens 2023; 12:pathogens12020353. [PMID: 36839625 PMCID: PMC9965285 DOI: 10.3390/pathogens12020353] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2023] [Revised: 02/13/2023] [Accepted: 02/15/2023] [Indexed: 02/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) belongs to the group of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies and is associated with the accumulation of a pathological isoform of the host-encoded glycoprotein, designated prion protein (PrPSc). Classical BSE (C-type) and two atypical BSE forms (L- and H-type) are known, and can be discriminated by biochemical characteristics. The goal of our study was to identify type-specific PrPSc profiles by using Immunohistochemistry. In our study, brain samples from 21 cattle, intracerebrally inoculated with C-, H-, and L-type BSE, were used. In addition, the corresponding samples from three orally C-type BSE infected animals were also included. From all animals, a lesion and PrPSc-profiles of six brain regions were determined. The lesion profile and the neuroanatomical distribution of PrPSc was highly consistent between the groups, but the immunohistochemical analysis revealed a distinct PrPSc profile for the different BSE-types, which included both the topographic and cellular pattern of PrPSc. This qualitative and quantitative analysis of PrPSc affected structures sheds new light into the pathogenesis of the different BSE types. Furthermore, immunohistochemical characterization is supported as an additional diagnostic tool in BSE surveillance programs, especially when only formalin-fixed tissue samples are available.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christine Fast
- Friedrich-Loeffler Institut/INEID, 17493 Insel Riems, Germany
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +49-38351-71274
| | | | - Martin Kaatz
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada
| | | | - Tammy Kaatz
- Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Lethbridge, AB T1J 3Z4, Canada
| | - Kendra MacPherson
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada
| | | | - Ute Ziegler
- Friedrich-Loeffler Institut/INEID, 17493 Insel Riems, Germany
| | | | - Stefanie Czub
- Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Lethbridge, AB T1J 3Z4, Canada
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada
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18
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Tranulis MA, Tryland M. The Zoonotic Potential of Chronic Wasting Disease-A Review. Foods 2023; 12:foods12040824. [PMID: 36832899 PMCID: PMC9955994 DOI: 10.3390/foods12040824] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2022] [Revised: 02/01/2023] [Accepted: 02/06/2023] [Indexed: 02/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Prion diseases are transmissible neurodegenerative disorders that affect humans and ruminant species consumed by humans. Ruminant prion diseases include bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle, scrapie in sheep and goats and chronic wasting disease (CWD) in cervids. In 1996, prions causing BSE were identified as the cause of a new prion disease in humans; variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). This sparked a food safety crisis and unprecedented protective measures to reduce human exposure to livestock prions. CWD continues to spread in North America, and now affects free-ranging and/or farmed cervids in 30 US states and four Canadian provinces. The recent discovery in Europe of previously unrecognized CWD strains has further heightened concerns about CWD as a food pathogen. The escalating CWD prevalence in enzootic areas and its appearance in a new species (reindeer) and new geographical locations, increase human exposure and the risk of CWD strain adaptation to humans. No cases of human prion disease caused by CWD have been recorded, and most experimental data suggest that the zoonotic risk of CWD is very low. However, the understanding of these diseases is still incomplete (e.g., origin, transmission properties and ecology), suggesting that precautionary measures should be implemented to minimize human exposure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael A. Tranulis
- Department of Preclinical Sciences and Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, 5003 As, Norway
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +47-67232040
| | - Morten Tryland
- Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management, Faculty of Applied Ecology, Agricultural Sciences and Biotechnology, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, 2480 Koppang, Norway
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19
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Pakpahan S, Widayanti R, Artama WT, Budisatria IGS, Lühken G. Genetic variability of the prion protein gene in Indonesian goat breeds. Trop Anim Health Prod 2023; 55:87. [PMID: 36806784 PMCID: PMC9938069 DOI: 10.1007/s11250-023-03486-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2022] [Accepted: 01/23/2023] [Indexed: 02/19/2023]
Abstract
Scrapie is a naturally occurring transmissible spongiform encephalopathy in sheep and goats. Resistance or susceptibility of small ruminants to classical scrapie is influenced by polymorphisms in the prion protein gene (PRNP). PRNP variability in Indonesian indigenous goat breeds has not been investigated so far and therefore was the goal of this study. Sanger sequencing of the PRNP gene coding region in 72 goats of the seven Indonesian breeds Kacang, Gembrong, Samosir, Kejobong, Benggala, Jawarandu, and Peranakan Etawah revealed three amino acid substitutions, namely W102G, H143R, and S240P. Some silent mutations were also found at codons 42 (a/g), 138 (c/t), and 179 (g/t). The PRNP alleles K222 and D/S146 known to have significant protective effects on resistance to classical scrapie in goats were not detected. The allele R143, which may have a moderate protective effect, had a frequency of 12% among the analyzed Indonesian goat breeds. While R143 was missing in Kacang and Benggala, its frequency was highest in the breed Gembrong (32%). No scrapie cases have been reported in Indonesia until now. However, in the case that selection for protective PRNP variants would become a breeding goal, the analyzed breeds will not be very useful resources. Other goat breeds which are present in the country should be investigated regarding resistance to scrapie, too.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suhendra Pakpahan
- Research Center for Applied Zoology, Research Organization for Life Sciences, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Jl. Jakarta-Bogor Km.46, Cibinong, 16911 West Java Indonesia
| | - Rini Widayanti
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, 55281 Indonesia
| | - Wayan Tunas Artama
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, 55281 Indonesia
| | - I. Gede Suparta Budisatria
- Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Animal Science, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, 55281 Indonesia
| | - Gesine Lühken
- Institute of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Justus-Liebig University, 35390, Giessen, Germany.
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20
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Vidal E, Sánchez-Martín MA, Eraña H, Lázaro SP, Pérez-Castro MA, Otero A, Charco JM, Marín B, López-Moreno R, Díaz-Domínguez CM, Geijo M, Ordóñez M, Cantero G, di Bari M, Lorenzo NL, Pirisinu L, d’Agostino C, Torres JM, Béringue V, Telling G, Badiola JJ, Pumarola M, Bolea R, Nonno R, Requena JR, Castilla J. Bona fide atypical scrapie faithfully reproduced for the first time in a rodent model. Acta Neuropathol Commun 2022; 10:179. [PMID: 36514160 PMCID: PMC9749341 DOI: 10.1186/s40478-022-01477-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2022] [Accepted: 11/10/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Atypical Scrapie, which is not linked to epidemics, is assumed to be an idiopathic spontaneous prion disease in small ruminants. Therefore, its occurrence is unlikely to be controlled through selective breeding or other strategies as it is done for classical scrapie outbreaks. Its spontaneous nature and its sporadic incidence worldwide is reminiscent of the incidence of idiopathic spontaneous prion diseases in humans, which account for more than 85% of the cases in humans. Hence, developing animal models that consistently reproduce this phenomenon of spontaneous PrP misfolding, is of importance to study the pathobiology of idiopathic spontaneous prion disorders. Transgenic mice overexpressing sheep PrPC with I112 polymorphism (TgShI112, 1-2 × PrP levels compared to sheep brain) manifest clinical signs of a spongiform encephalopathy spontaneously as early as 380 days of age. The brains of these animals show the neuropathological hallmarks of prion disease and biochemical analyses of the misfolded prion protein show a ladder-like PrPres pattern with a predominant 7-10 kDa band. Brain homogenates from spontaneously diseased transgenic mice were inoculated in several models to assess their transmissibility and characterize the prion strain generated: TgShI112 (ovine I112 ARQ PrPC), Tg338 (ovine VRQ PrPC), Tg501 (ovine ARQ PrPC), Tg340 (human M129 PrPC), Tg361 (human V129 PrPC), TgVole (bank vole I109 PrPC), bank vole (I109I PrPC), and sheep (AHQ/ARR and AHQ/AHQ churra-tensina breeds). Our analysis of the results of these bioassays concludes that the strain generated in this model is indistinguishable to that causing atypical scrapie (Nor98). Thus, we present the first faithful model for a bona fide, transmissible, ovine, atypical scrapie prion disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Enric Vidal
- grid.424716.2Unitat Mixta d’Investigació IRTA-UAB en Sanitat Animal, Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Bellaterra, Catalonia Spain ,grid.424716.2IRTA Programa de Sanitat Animal, Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Bellaterra, Catalonia Spain
| | - Manuel A. Sánchez-Martín
- grid.11762.330000 0001 2180 1817Transgenic Facility. Department of Medicine, University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain
| | - Hasier Eraña
- grid.420175.50000 0004 0639 2420Centro de Investigación Cooperativa en Biociencias (CIC BioGUNE), Laboratorio de Investigación de Priones, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Bizkaia Spain ,ATLAS Molecular Pharma S. L., Derio, Bizkaia Spain ,grid.413448.e0000 0000 9314 1427Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Infecciosas (CIBERINFEC), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Sonia Pérez Lázaro
- grid.11205.370000 0001 2152 8769Centro de Encefalopatías y Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Zaragoza–IA2, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Miguel A. Pérez-Castro
- grid.420175.50000 0004 0639 2420Centro de Investigación Cooperativa en Biociencias (CIC BioGUNE), Laboratorio de Investigación de Priones, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Bizkaia Spain
| | - Alicia Otero
- grid.11205.370000 0001 2152 8769Centro de Encefalopatías y Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Zaragoza–IA2, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Jorge M. Charco
- grid.420175.50000 0004 0639 2420Centro de Investigación Cooperativa en Biociencias (CIC BioGUNE), Laboratorio de Investigación de Priones, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Bizkaia Spain ,ATLAS Molecular Pharma S. L., Derio, Bizkaia Spain ,grid.413448.e0000 0000 9314 1427Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Infecciosas (CIBERINFEC), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Belén Marín
- grid.11205.370000 0001 2152 8769Centro de Encefalopatías y Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Zaragoza–IA2, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Rafael López-Moreno
- grid.420175.50000 0004 0639 2420Centro de Investigación Cooperativa en Biociencias (CIC BioGUNE), Laboratorio de Investigación de Priones, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Bizkaia Spain
| | - Carlos M. Díaz-Domínguez
- grid.420175.50000 0004 0639 2420Centro de Investigación Cooperativa en Biociencias (CIC BioGUNE), Laboratorio de Investigación de Priones, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Bizkaia Spain
| | - Mariví Geijo
- grid.509696.50000 0000 9853 6743Animal Health Department, NEIKER-Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and Development, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Spain
| | - Montserrat Ordóñez
- grid.424716.2Unitat Mixta d’Investigació IRTA-UAB en Sanitat Animal, Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Bellaterra, Catalonia Spain ,grid.424716.2IRTA Programa de Sanitat Animal, Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Bellaterra, Catalonia Spain
| | - Guillermo Cantero
- grid.424716.2Unitat Mixta d’Investigació IRTA-UAB en Sanitat Animal, Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Bellaterra, Catalonia Spain ,grid.424716.2IRTA Programa de Sanitat Animal, Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Bellaterra, Catalonia Spain
| | - Michele di Bari
- grid.416651.10000 0000 9120 6856Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Istituto Superiore Di Sanità, 00161 Rome, Italy
| | - Nuria L. Lorenzo
- grid.11794.3a0000000109410645CIMUS Biomedical Research Institute, University of Santiago de Compostela-IDIS, Santiago, Spain
| | - Laura Pirisinu
- grid.416651.10000 0000 9120 6856Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Istituto Superiore Di Sanità, 00161 Rome, Italy
| | - Claudia d’Agostino
- grid.416651.10000 0000 9120 6856Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Istituto Superiore Di Sanità, 00161 Rome, Italy
| | - Juan María Torres
- grid.419190.40000 0001 2300 669XCentro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (CISA), Centro Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) Valdeolmos, Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA), 28130 Madrid, Spain
| | - Vincent Béringue
- grid.417961.cMolecular Virology and Immunology, Institut National de La Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Université Paris-Saclay, Jouy-en-Josas, France
| | - Glenn Telling
- grid.47894.360000 0004 1936 8083Prion Research Center (PRC) and the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO USA
| | - Juan J. Badiola
- grid.11205.370000 0001 2152 8769Centro de Encefalopatías y Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Zaragoza–IA2, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Martí Pumarola
- Departament de Medicina i Cirurgia Animals, Facultat de Veterinària, Campus de UAB, Bellaterra, 08193 Barcelona, Catalonia Spain
| | - Rosa Bolea
- grid.11205.370000 0001 2152 8769Centro de Encefalopatías y Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Zaragoza–IA2, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Romolo Nonno
- grid.416651.10000 0000 9120 6856Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Istituto Superiore Di Sanità, 00161 Rome, Italy
| | - Jesús R. Requena
- grid.11794.3a0000000109410645CIMUS Biomedical Research Institute, University of Santiago de Compostela-IDIS, Santiago, Spain
| | - Joaquín Castilla
- grid.420175.50000 0004 0639 2420Centro de Investigación Cooperativa en Biociencias (CIC BioGUNE), Laboratorio de Investigación de Priones, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Bizkaia Spain ,grid.413448.e0000 0000 9314 1427Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Infecciosas (CIBERINFEC), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain ,grid.424810.b0000 0004 0467 2314IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Bizkaia Spain
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21
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Igel A, Fornara B, Rezaei H, Béringue V. Prion assemblies: structural heterogeneity, mechanisms of formation, and role in species barrier. Cell Tissue Res 2022; 392:149-166. [PMID: 36399162 PMCID: PMC10113350 DOI: 10.1007/s00441-022-03700-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2022] [Accepted: 11/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
AbstractPrions are proteinaceous pathogens responsible for a wide range of neurodegenerative diseases in animal and human. Prions are formed from misfolded, ß-sheet rich, and aggregated conformers (PrPSc) of the host-encoded prion protein (PrPC). Prion replication stems from the capacity of PrPSc to self-replicate by templating PrPC conversion and polymerization. The question then arises about the molecular mechanisms of prion replication, host invasion, and capacity to contaminate other species. Studying these mechanisms has gained in recent years further complexity with evidence that PrPSc is a pleiomorphic protein. There is indeed compelling evidence for PrPSc structural heterogeneity at different scales: (i) within prion susceptible host populations with the existence of different strains with specific biological features due to different PrPSc conformers, (ii) within a single infected host with the co-propagation of different strains, and (iii) within a single strain with evidence for co-propagation of PrPSc assemblies differing in their secondary to quaternary structure. This review summarizes current knowledge of prion assembly heterogeneity, potential mechanisms of formation during the replication process, and importance when crossing the species barrier.
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22
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Pirisinu L, Di Bari MA, D’Agostino C, Vanni I, Riccardi G, Marcon S, Vaccari G, Chiappini B, Benestad SL, Agrimi U, Nonno R. A single amino acid residue in bank vole prion protein drives permissiveness to Nor98/atypical scrapie and the emergence of multiple strain variants. PLoS Pathog 2022; 18:e1010646. [PMID: 35731839 PMCID: PMC9255773 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1010646] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2022] [Revised: 07/05/2022] [Accepted: 06/03/2022] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Prions are infectious agents that replicate through the autocatalytic misfolding of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) into infectious aggregates (PrPSc) causing fatal neurodegenerative diseases in humans and animals. Prions exist as strains, which are encoded by conformational variants of PrPSc. The transmissibility of prions depends on the PrPC sequence of the recipient host and on the incoming prion strain, so that some animal prion strains are more contagious than others or are transmissible to new species, including humans. Nor98/atypical scrapie (AS) is a prion disease of sheep and goats reported in several countries worldwide. At variance with classical scrapie (CS), AS is considered poorly contagious and is supposed to be spontaneous in origin. The zoonotic potential of AS, its strain variability and the relationships with the more contagious CS strains remain largely unknown. We characterized AS isolates from sheep and goats by transmission in ovinised transgenic mice (tg338) and in two genetic lines of bank voles, carrying either methionine (BvM) or isoleucine (BvI) at PrP residue 109. All AS isolates induced the same pathological phenotype in tg338 mice, thus proving that they encoded the same strain, irrespective of their geographical origin or source species. In bank voles, we found that the M109I polymorphism dictates the susceptibility to AS. BvI were susceptible and faithfully reproduced the AS strain, while the transmission in BvM was highly inefficient and was characterized by a conformational change towards a CS-like prion strain. Sub-passaging experiments revealed that the main strain component of AS is accompanied by minor CS-like strain components, which can be positively selected during replication in both AS-resistant or AS-susceptible animals. These findings add new clues for a better comprehension of strain selection dynamics in prion infections and have wider implications for understanding the origin of contagious prion strains, such as CS. Prions are transmissible agents responsible for fatal neurodegenerative diseases in humans and animals. Prions exist as strains, exhibiting distinct disease phenotypes and transmission properties. Some prion diseases occur sporadically with a supposedly spontaneous origin, while others are contagious and give rise to epidemics, mainly in animals. We investigated the strain properties of Nor98/atypical scrapie (AS), a sporadic prion disease of small ruminants. We found that AS was faithfully reproduced not only in a homologous context, i.e. ovinised transgenic mice, but also in an unrelated animal species, the bank vole. A natural polymorphism of the bank vole prion protein, coding for methionine (BvM) or for isoleucine (BvI) at codon 109, dictated the susceptibility of voles to AS, with BvI being highly susceptible to AS and BvM rather resistant. Most importantly, the M109I polymorphism mediated the emergence of AS-derived mutant prion strains resembling classical scrapie (CS), a contagious prion disease. Finally, by sub-passages in bank voles, we found that the main strain component of AS is accompanied by minor CS-like strain components, which can be positively selected during replication in both AS-resistant or AS-susceptible vole lines. These findings allow a better understanding of strain selection dynamics and suggest a link between sporadic and contagious prion diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Pirisinu
- Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy
| | - Michele Angelo Di Bari
- Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy
| | - Claudia D’Agostino
- Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy
| | - Ilaria Vanni
- Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy
| | - Geraldina Riccardi
- Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy
| | - Stefano Marcon
- Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy
| | - Gabriele Vaccari
- Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy
| | - Barbara Chiappini
- Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Umberto Agrimi
- Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy
| | - Romolo Nonno
- Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy
- * E-mail:
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23
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Harpaz E, Salvesen Ø, Rauset GR, Mahmood A, Tran L, Ytrehus B, Benestad SL, Tranulis MA, Espenes A, Ersdal C. No evidence of uptake or propagation of reindeer CWD prions in environmentally exposed sheep. Acta Vet Scand 2022; 64:13. [PMID: 35668456 PMCID: PMC9169292 DOI: 10.1186/s13028-022-00632-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2022] [Accepted: 05/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a prion disease of cervids first reported in North America in the 1960s. In Europe, CWD was first diagnosed in 2016 in a wild reindeer in Norway. Detection of two more cases in the same mountain area led to the complete culling of this partially confined reindeer population of about 2400 animals. A total of 19 CWD positive animals were identified. The affected area is extensively used for the grazing of sheep during summers. There are many mineral licks intended for sheep in the area, but these have also been used by reindeer. This overlap in area use raised concerns for cross-species prion transmission between reindeer and sheep. In this study, we have used global positioning system (GPS) data from sheep and reindeer, including tracking one of the CWD positive reindeer, to investigate spatial and time-relevant overlaps between these two species. Since prions can accumulate in lymphoid follicles following oral uptake, samples of gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) from 425 lambs and 78 adult sheep, which had grazed in the region during the relevant timeframe, were analyzed for the presence of prions. The recto-anal mucosa associated lymphoid tissue (RAMALT) from all the animals were examined by histology, immunohistochemistry (IHC) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the ileal Peyer's patch (IPP) from a subsample of 37 lambs were examined by histology and IHC, for the detection of prions. RESULTS GPS data showed an overlap in area use between the infected reindeer herd and the sheep. In addition, the GPS positions of an infected reindeer and some of the sampled sheep showed temporospatial overlap. No prions were detected in the GALT of the investigated sheep even though the mean lymphoid follicle number in RAMALT and IPP samples were high. CONCLUSION The absence of prions in the GALT of sheep that have shared pasture with CWD-infected reindeer, may suggest that transmission of this novel CWD strain to sheep does not easily occur under the conditions found in these mountains. We document that the lymphoid follicle rich RAMALT could be a useful tool to screen for prions in sheep.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erez Harpaz
- Department of Production Animal Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Svebastadveien, 112, 4325, Sandnes, Norway
| | - Øyvind Salvesen
- Department of Production Animal Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Svebastadveien, 112, 4325, Sandnes, Norway
| | - Geir Rune Rauset
- Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), Torgarden, P.O. Box 5685, 7485, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Aqsa Mahmood
- Department of Production Animal Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Svebastadveien, 112, 4325, Sandnes, Norway
| | - Linh Tran
- Norwegian Veterinary Institute, P.O. box 64, 1431, Ås, Norway
| | - Bjørnar Ytrehus
- Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), Torgarden, P.O. Box 5685, 7485, Trondheim, Norway.,Department of Biomedical Science and Veterinary Public Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7028, 750 07, Uppsala, Sweden
| | | | - Michael Andreas Tranulis
- Department of Preclinical Sciences and Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Universitetstunet 3, 1433, Ås, Norway
| | - Arild Espenes
- Department of Preclinical Sciences and Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Universitetstunet 3, 1433, Ås, Norway
| | - Cecilie Ersdal
- Department of Production Animal Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Svebastadveien, 112, 4325, Sandnes, Norway.
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24
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Wagner K, Pierce R, Gordon E, Hay A, Lessard A, Telling GC, Ballard JR, Moreno JA, Zabel MD. Tissue-specific biochemical differences between chronic wasting disease prions isolated from free-ranging white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). J Biol Chem 2022; 298:101834. [PMID: 35304100 PMCID: PMC9019250 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbc.2022.101834] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2021] [Revised: 03/08/2022] [Accepted: 03/10/2022] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an invariably fatal prion disease affecting cervid species worldwide. Prions can manifest as distinct strains that can influence disease pathology and transmission. CWD is profoundly lymphotropic, and most infected cervids likely shed peripheral prions replicated in lymphoid organs. However, CWD is a neurodegenerative disease, and most research on prion strains has focused on neurogenic prions. Thus, a knowledge gap exists comparing neurogenic prions to lymphogenic prions. In this study, we compared prions from the obex and lymph nodes of naturally exposed white-tailed deer to identify potential biochemical strain differences. Here, we report biochemical evidence of strain differences between the brain and lymph node from these animals. Conformational stability assays, glycoform ratio analyses, and immunoreactivity scanning across the structured domain of the prion protein that refolds into the amyloid aggregate of the infectious prion reveal significantly more structural and glycoform variation in lymphogenic prions than neurogenic prions. Surprisingly, we observed greater biochemical differences among neurogenic prions than lymphogenic prions across individuals. We propose that the lymphoreticular system propagates a diverse array of prions from which the brain selects a more restricted pool of prions that may be quite different than those from another individual of the same species. Future work should examine the biological and zoonotic impact of these biochemical differences and examine more cervids from multiple locations to determine if these differences are conserved across species and locations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaitlyn Wagner
- Prion Research Center, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA,Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
| | - Robyn Pierce
- Prion Research Center, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA,Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
| | - Elizabeth Gordon
- Prion Research Center, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA,Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
| | - Arielle Hay
- Prion Research Center, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA,Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
| | - Avery Lessard
- Prion Research Center, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA,Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
| | - Glenn C. Telling
- Prion Research Center, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA,Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
| | - Jennifer R. Ballard
- Research Division, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
| | - Julie A. Moreno
- Prion Research Center, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA,Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
| | - Mark D. Zabel
- Prion Research Center, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA,Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA,For correspondence: Mark D. Zabel
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25
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Murray SJ, Mitchell NL. The Translational Benefits of Sheep as Large Animal Models of Human Neurological Disorders. Front Vet Sci 2022; 9:831838. [PMID: 35242840 PMCID: PMC8886239 DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2022.831838] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2021] [Accepted: 01/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
The past two decades have seen a considerable rise in the use of sheep to model human neurological disorders. While each animal model has its merits, sheep have many advantages over small animal models when it comes to studies on the brain. In particular, sheep have brains more comparable in size and structure to the human brain. They also have much longer life spans and are docile animals, making them useful for a wide range of in vivo studies. Sheep are amenable to regular blood and cerebrospinal fluid sampling which aids in biomarker discovery and monitoring of treatment efficacy. Several neurological diseases have been found to occur naturally in sheep, however sheep can also be genetically engineered or experimentally manipulated to recapitulate disease or injury. Many of these types of sheep models are currently being used for pre-clinical therapeutic trials, particularly gene therapy, with studies from several models culminating in potential treatments moving into clinical trials. This review will provide an overview of the benefits of using sheep to model neurological conditions, and highlight naturally occurring and experimentally induced sheep models that have demonstrated translational validity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samantha J. Murray
- Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand
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26
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Bujdoso R, Smith A, Fleck O, Spiropoulos J, Andréoletti O, Thackray AM. Prion disease modelled in Drosophila. Cell Tissue Res 2022; 392:47-62. [PMID: 35092497 PMCID: PMC10113284 DOI: 10.1007/s00441-022-03586-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2021] [Accepted: 01/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
AbstractPrion diseases are fatal neurodegenerative conditions of humans and various vertebrate species that are transmissible between individuals of the same or different species. A novel infectious moiety referred to as a prion is considered responsible for transmission of these conditions. Prion replication is believed to be the cause of the neurotoxicity that arises during prion disease pathogenesis. The prion hypothesis predicts that the transmissible prion agent consists of PrPSc, which is comprised of aggregated misfolded conformers of the normal host protein PrPC. It is important to understand the biology of transmissible prions and to identify genetic modifiers of prion-induced neurotoxicity. This information will underpin the development of therapeutic and control strategies for human and animal prion diseases. The most reliable method to detect prion infectivity is by in vivo transmission in a suitable experimental host, which to date have been mammalian species. Current prion bioassays are slow, cumbersome and relatively insensitive to low titres of prion infectivity, and do not lend themselves to rapid genetic analysis of prion disease. Here, we provide an overview of our novel studies that have led to the establishment of Drosophila melanogaster, a genetically well-defined invertebrate host, as a sensitive, versatile and economically viable animal model for the detection of mammalian prion infectivity and genetic modifiers of prion-induced toxicity.
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27
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Piel RB, McElliott VR, Stanton JB, Zhuang D, Madsen-Bouterse SA, Hamburg LK, Harrington RD, Schneider DA. PrPres in placental tissue following experimental transmission of atypical scrapie in ARR/ARR sheep is not infectious by Tg338 mouse bioassay. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0262766. [PMID: 35061802 PMCID: PMC8782414 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262766] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2021] [Accepted: 01/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Nor98-like atypical scrapie is a sporadic disease that affects the central nervous system of sheep and goats that, in contrast to classical scrapie, is not generally regarded as naturally transmissible. However, infectivity has been demonstrated via bioassay not only of brain tissue but also of certain peripheral nerves, lymphoid tissues, and muscle. This study examines placental tissue, a well characterized route of natural transmission for classical scrapie. Further, this study was conducted in sheep homozygous for the classical scrapie resistant ARR genotype and is the first to characterize the transmission of Nor98-like scrapie between homozygous-ARR sheep. Nor98-like scrapie isolated from a United States ARR/ARR sheep was transmitted to four ARR/ARR ewes via intracerebral inoculation of brain homogenate. These ewes were followed and observed to 8 years of age, remained non-clinical but exhibited progression of infection that was consistent with Nor98-like scrapie, including characteristic patterns of PrPSc accumulation in the brain and a lack of accumulation in peripheral lymphoid tissues as detected by conventional methods. Immunoblots of placental tissues from the infected ewes revealed accumulation of a distinct conformation of PrPres, particularly as the animals aged; however, the placenta showed no infectivity when analyzed via ovinized mouse bioassay. Taken together, these results support a low risk for natural transmission of Nor98-like scrapie in ARR/ARR sheep.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert B. Piel
- Animal Disease Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Pullman, Washington, United States of America
- Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, United States of America
| | - Valerie R. McElliott
- Department of Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America
| | - James B. Stanton
- Department of Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America
| | - Dongyue Zhuang
- Animal Disease Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Pullman, Washington, United States of America
| | - Sally A. Madsen-Bouterse
- Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, United States of America
| | - Linda K. Hamburg
- Animal Disease Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Pullman, Washington, United States of America
| | - Robert D. Harrington
- Animal Disease Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Pullman, Washington, United States of America
- Department of Comparative Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
| | - David A. Schneider
- Animal Disease Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Pullman, Washington, United States of America
- Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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Nichols TA, Nicholson EM, Liu Y, Tao W, Spraker TR, Lavelle M, Fischer J, Kong Q, VerCauteren KC. Detection of two dissimilar chronic wasting disease isolates in two captive Rocky Mountain elk ( Cervus canadensis) herds. Prion 2021; 15:207-215. [PMID: 34913829 PMCID: PMC8682864 DOI: 10.1080/19336896.2021.1982333] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) continues to spread in both wild and captive cervid herds in North America and has now been identified in wild reindeer and moose in Norway, Finland and Sweden. There is limited knowledge about the variety and characteristics of isolates or strains of CWD that exist in the landscape and their implications on wild and captive cervid herds. In this study, we evaluated brain samples from two captive elk herds that had differing prevalence, history and timelines of CWD incidence. Site 1 had a 16-year history of CWD with a consistently low prevalence between 5% and 10%. Twelve of fourteen naïve animals placed on the site remained CWD negative after 5 years of residence. Site 2 herd had a nearly 40-year known history of CWD with long-term environmental accrual of prion leading to nearly 100% of naïve animals developing clinical CWD within two to 12 years. Obex samples of several elk from each site were compared for CWD prion strain deposition, genotype in prion protein gene codon 132, and conformational stability of CWD prions. CWD prions in the obex from site 2 had a lower conformational stability than those from site 1, which was independent of prnp genotype at codon 132. These findings suggest the existence of different CWD isolates between the two sites and suggest potential differential disease attack rates for different CWD strains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tracy A Nichols
- Veterinary Services Cervid Health Program, United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
| | - Eric M Nicholson
- Us Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Ames, Iowa, USA
| | - Yihui Liu
- Departments of Pathology, Neurology, National Center for Regenerative Medicine, and National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
| | - Wanyun Tao
- Departments of Pathology, Neurology, National Center for Regenerative Medicine, and National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
| | - Terry R Spraker
- Prion Research Center and the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University Prion Research Center, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
| | - Michael Lavelle
- Wildlife Services National Wildlife Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
| | - Justin Fischer
- Wildlife Services National Wildlife Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
| | - Qingzhong Kong
- Departments of Pathology, Neurology, National Center for Regenerative Medicine, and National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
| | - Kurt C VerCauteren
- Wildlife Services National Wildlife Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
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29
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Differential Accumulation of Misfolded Prion Strains in Natural Hosts of Prion Diseases. Viruses 2021; 13:v13122453. [PMID: 34960722 PMCID: PMC8706046 DOI: 10.3390/v13122453] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2021] [Revised: 12/01/2021] [Accepted: 12/03/2021] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Prion diseases, also known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), are a group of neurodegenerative protein misfolding diseases that invariably cause death. TSEs occur when the endogenous cellular prion protein (PrPC) misfolds to form the pathological prion protein (PrPSc), which templates further conversion of PrPC to PrPSc, accumulates, and initiates a cascade of pathologic processes in cells and tissues. Different strains of prion disease within a species are thought to arise from the differential misfolding of the prion protein and have different clinical phenotypes. Different strains of prion disease may also result in differential accumulation of PrPSc in brain regions and tissues of natural hosts. Here, we review differential accumulation that occurs in the retinal ganglion cells, cerebellar cortex and white matter, and plexuses of the enteric nervous system in cattle with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, sheep and goats with scrapie, cervids with chronic wasting disease, and humans with prion diseases. By characterizing TSEs in their natural host, we can better understand the pathogenesis of different prion strains. This information is valuable in the pursuit of evaluating and discovering potential biomarkers and therapeutics for prion diseases.
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Esteves A, Vieira-Pinto M, Quintas H, Orge L, Gama A, Alves A, Seixas F, Pires I, Pinto MDL, Mendonça AP, Lima C, Machado CN, Silva JC, Tavares P, Silva F, Bastos E, Pereira J, Gonçalves-Anjo N, Carvalho P, Sargo R, Matos A, Figueira L, Pires MDA. Scrapie at Abattoir: Monitoring, Control, and Differential Diagnosis of Wasting Conditions during Meat Inspection. Animals (Basel) 2021; 11:3028. [PMID: 34827761 PMCID: PMC8614523 DOI: 10.3390/ani11113028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2021] [Revised: 10/15/2021] [Accepted: 10/18/2021] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Wasting disease in small ruminants is frequently detected at slaughterhouses. The wasting disorder is manifested by the deterioration of the nutritional and physiological state of the animal indicated by thinness, emaciation, and cachexia. Evidence of emaciation and cachexia, alone, are pathological conditions leading to carcass condemnation during an inspection. Several diseases are associated with a wasting condition, including scrapie, pseudotuberculosis, tuberculosis, paratuberculosis, Maedi Visna, and tumor diseases. On the other hand, parasitic diseases, nutrition disorders, exposure or ingestion of toxins, metabolic conditions, inadequate nutrition due to poor teeth, or poor alimentary diet are conditions contributing to poor body condition. Classical and atypical scrapie is naturally occurring transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in small ruminants. The etiological agent for each one is prions. However, each of these scrapie types is epidemiologically, pathologically, and biochemically different. Though atypical scrapie occurs at low incidence, it is consistently prevalent in the small ruminant population. Hence, it is advisable to include differential diagnosis of this disease, from other possibilities, as a cause of wasting conditions detected during meat inspection at the abattoir. This manuscript is a review of the measures in force at the abattoir for scrapie control, focusing on the differential diagnosis of gross lesions related to wasting conditions detected in small ruminants during meat inspection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra Esteves
- Animal and Veterinary Research Centre (CECAV), University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal; (M.V.-P.); (L.O.); (A.G.); (A.A.); (F.S.); (I.P.); (M.d.L.P.); (F.S.); (J.P.); (R.S.)
| | - Madalena Vieira-Pinto
- Animal and Veterinary Research Centre (CECAV), University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal; (M.V.-P.); (L.O.); (A.G.); (A.A.); (F.S.); (I.P.); (M.d.L.P.); (F.S.); (J.P.); (R.S.)
| | - Hélder Quintas
- Centro de Investigação de Montanha (CIMO), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia, 5300-253 Bragança, Portugal;
| | - Leonor Orge
- Animal and Veterinary Research Centre (CECAV), University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal; (M.V.-P.); (L.O.); (A.G.); (A.A.); (F.S.); (I.P.); (M.d.L.P.); (F.S.); (J.P.); (R.S.)
- Pathology Laboratory, UEISPSA, National Institute for Agricultural and Veterinary Research (INIAV), I.P., 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal; (A.P.M.); (C.N.M.); (J.C.S.); (P.C.)
| | - Adelina Gama
- Animal and Veterinary Research Centre (CECAV), University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal; (M.V.-P.); (L.O.); (A.G.); (A.A.); (F.S.); (I.P.); (M.d.L.P.); (F.S.); (J.P.); (R.S.)
| | - Anabela Alves
- Animal and Veterinary Research Centre (CECAV), University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal; (M.V.-P.); (L.O.); (A.G.); (A.A.); (F.S.); (I.P.); (M.d.L.P.); (F.S.); (J.P.); (R.S.)
| | - Fernanda Seixas
- Animal and Veterinary Research Centre (CECAV), University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal; (M.V.-P.); (L.O.); (A.G.); (A.A.); (F.S.); (I.P.); (M.d.L.P.); (F.S.); (J.P.); (R.S.)
| | - Isabel Pires
- Animal and Veterinary Research Centre (CECAV), University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal; (M.V.-P.); (L.O.); (A.G.); (A.A.); (F.S.); (I.P.); (M.d.L.P.); (F.S.); (J.P.); (R.S.)
| | - Maria de Lurdes Pinto
- Animal and Veterinary Research Centre (CECAV), University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal; (M.V.-P.); (L.O.); (A.G.); (A.A.); (F.S.); (I.P.); (M.d.L.P.); (F.S.); (J.P.); (R.S.)
| | - Ana Paula Mendonça
- Pathology Laboratory, UEISPSA, National Institute for Agricultural and Veterinary Research (INIAV), I.P., 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal; (A.P.M.); (C.N.M.); (J.C.S.); (P.C.)
| | - Carla Lima
- Pathology Laboratory, UEISPSA, National Institute for Agricultural and Veterinary Research (INIAV), I.P., 4485-655 Vila do Conde, Portugal; (C.L.); (P.T.)
| | - Carla Neves Machado
- Pathology Laboratory, UEISPSA, National Institute for Agricultural and Veterinary Research (INIAV), I.P., 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal; (A.P.M.); (C.N.M.); (J.C.S.); (P.C.)
| | - João Carlos Silva
- Pathology Laboratory, UEISPSA, National Institute for Agricultural and Veterinary Research (INIAV), I.P., 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal; (A.P.M.); (C.N.M.); (J.C.S.); (P.C.)
| | - Paula Tavares
- Pathology Laboratory, UEISPSA, National Institute for Agricultural and Veterinary Research (INIAV), I.P., 4485-655 Vila do Conde, Portugal; (C.L.); (P.T.)
| | - Filipe Silva
- Animal and Veterinary Research Centre (CECAV), University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal; (M.V.-P.); (L.O.); (A.G.); (A.A.); (F.S.); (I.P.); (M.d.L.P.); (F.S.); (J.P.); (R.S.)
| | - Estela Bastos
- Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environmental and Biological Sciences (CITAB), University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal;
- Genetic Department, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal;
| | - Jorge Pereira
- Animal and Veterinary Research Centre (CECAV), University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal; (M.V.-P.); (L.O.); (A.G.); (A.A.); (F.S.); (I.P.); (M.d.L.P.); (F.S.); (J.P.); (R.S.)
| | - Nuno Gonçalves-Anjo
- Genetic Department, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal;
| | - Paulo Carvalho
- Pathology Laboratory, UEISPSA, National Institute for Agricultural and Veterinary Research (INIAV), I.P., 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal; (A.P.M.); (C.N.M.); (J.C.S.); (P.C.)
| | - Roberto Sargo
- Animal and Veterinary Research Centre (CECAV), University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal; (M.V.-P.); (L.O.); (A.G.); (A.A.); (F.S.); (I.P.); (M.d.L.P.); (F.S.); (J.P.); (R.S.)
| | - Ana Matos
- Research Center for Natural Resources, Environment and Society (CERNAS), Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco (IPCB), 6000-767 Castelo Branco, Portugal;
- Quality of Life in the Rural World (Q-Rural), Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco (IPCB), 6000-767 Castelo Branco, Portugal;
| | - Luís Figueira
- Quality of Life in the Rural World (Q-Rural), Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco (IPCB), 6000-767 Castelo Branco, Portugal;
| | - Maria dos Anjos Pires
- Animal and Veterinary Research Centre (CECAV), University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal; (M.V.-P.); (L.O.); (A.G.); (A.A.); (F.S.); (I.P.); (M.d.L.P.); (F.S.); (J.P.); (R.S.)
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Gallardo MJ, Delgado FO. Animal prion diseases: A review of intraspecies transmission. Open Vet J 2021; 11:707-723. [PMID: 35070868 PMCID: PMC8770171 DOI: 10.5455/ovj.2021.v11.i4.23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2021] [Accepted: 11/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Animal prion diseases are a group of neurodegenerative, transmissible, and fatal disorders that affect several animal species. The causative agent, prion, is a misfolded isoform of normal cellular prion protein, which is found in cells with higher concentration in the central nervous system. This review explored the sources of infection and different natural transmission routes of animal prion diseases in susceptible populations. Chronic wasting disease in cervids and scrapie in small ruminants are prion diseases capable of maintaining themselves in susceptible populations through horizontal and vertical transmission. The other prion animal diseases can only be transmitted through food contaminated with prions. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is the only animal prion disease considered zoonotic. However, due to its inability to transmit within a population, it could be controlled. The emergence of atypical cases of scrapie and BSE, even the recent report of prion disease in camels, demonstrates the importance of understanding the transmission routes of prion diseases to take measures to control them and to assess the risks to human and animal health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mauro Julián Gallardo
- Instituto de Patobiología Veterinaria, IPVet, UEDD INTA-CONICET, Hurlingham, Argentina
- Cátedra de Enfermedades Infecciosas, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Fernando Oscar Delgado
- Instituto de Patobiología Veterinaria, IPVet, UEDD INTA-CONICET, Hurlingham, Argentina
- Facultad de Cs. Agrarias y Veterinarias, Universidad del Salvador, Pilar, Argentina
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Casanova M, Machado C, Tavares P, Silva J, Fast C, Balkema-Buschmann A, Groschup MH, Orge L. Circulation of Nor98 Atypical Scrapie in Portuguese Sheep Confirmed by Transmission of Isolates into Transgenic Ovine ARQ-PrP Mice. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:ijms221910441. [PMID: 34638780 PMCID: PMC8508621 DOI: 10.3390/ijms221910441] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2021] [Revised: 09/23/2021] [Accepted: 09/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Portugal was among the first European countries to report cases of Atypical Scrapie (ASc), the dominant form of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) in Portuguese small ruminants. Although the diagnostic phenotypes observed in Portuguese ASc cases seem identical to those described for Nor98, unequivocal identification requires TSE strain-typing using murine bioassays. In this regard, we initiated characterization of ASc isolates from sheep either homozygous for the ARQ genotype or the classical scrapie-resistant ARR genotype. Isolates from such genotypes were transmitted to TgshpXI mice expressing ovine PrPARQ. Mean incubation periods were 414 ± 58 and 483 ± 107 days in mice inoculated with AL141RQ/AF141RQ and AL141RR/AL141RR sheep isolates, respectively. Both isolates produced lesion profiles similar to French ASc Nor98 'discordant cases', where vacuolation was observed in the hippocampus (G6), cerebral cortex at the thalamus (G8) level, cerebellar white matter (W1) and cerebral peduncles (W3). Immunohistochemical PrPSc deposition was observed in the hippocampus, cerebellar cortex, cerebellar white matter and cerebral peduncles in the form of aggregates and fine granules. These findings were consistent with previously reported cases of ASc Nor98 transmitted to transgenic TgshpXI mice, confirming that the ASc strain present in Portuguese sheep corresponds to ASc Nor98.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mafalda Casanova
- Histopathology Facility, Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC), 2780-156 Oeiras, Portugal;
- Veterinary Medicine Department, University of Évora, 7004-516 Évora, Portugal
| | - Carla Machado
- Pathology Laboratory, UEISPSA, National Institute for Agricultural and Veterinary Research (INIAV), I.P., 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal; (C.M.); (J.S.)
| | - Paula Tavares
- Pathology Laboratory, UEISPSA, National Institute for Agricultural and Veterinary Research (INIAV), I.P., 4485-655 Vairão-Vila do Conde, Portugal;
| | - João Silva
- Pathology Laboratory, UEISPSA, National Institute for Agricultural and Veterinary Research (INIAV), I.P., 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal; (C.M.); (J.S.)
| | - Christine Fast
- Institute of Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Insel Riems, 17493 Greifswald, Germany; (C.F.); (A.B.-B.); (M.H.G.)
| | - Anne Balkema-Buschmann
- Institute of Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Insel Riems, 17493 Greifswald, Germany; (C.F.); (A.B.-B.); (M.H.G.)
| | - Martin H. Groschup
- Institute of Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Insel Riems, 17493 Greifswald, Germany; (C.F.); (A.B.-B.); (M.H.G.)
| | - Leonor Orge
- Pathology Laboratory, UEISPSA, National Institute for Agricultural and Veterinary Research (INIAV), I.P., 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal; (C.M.); (J.S.)
- Animal and Veterinary Research Centre (CECAV), Associate Laboratory for Animal and Veterinary Science—AL4AnimalS, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal
- Correspondence:
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Peden AH, Suleiman S, Barria MA. Understanding Intra-Species and Inter-Species Prion Conversion and Zoonotic Potential Using Protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification. Front Aging Neurosci 2021; 13:716452. [PMID: 34413769 PMCID: PMC8368127 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2021.716452] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2021] [Accepted: 07/07/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Prion diseases are fatal neurodegenerative disorders that affect humans and animals, and can also be transmitted from animals to humans. A fundamental event in prion disease pathogenesis is the conversion of normal host prion protein (PrPC) to a disease-associated misfolded form (PrPSc). Whether or not an animal prion disease can infect humans cannot be determined a priori. There is a consensus that classical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (C-type BSE) in cattle transmits to humans, and that classical sheep scrapie is of little or no risk to human health. However, the zoonotic potential of more recently identified animal prion diseases, such as atypical scrapie, H-type and L-type BSE and chronic wasting disease (CWD) in cervids, remains an open question. Important components of the zoonotic barrier are (i) physiological differences between humans and the animal in question, (ii) amino acid sequence differences of the animal and human PrPC, and (iii) the animal prion strain, enciphered in the conformation of PrPSc. Historically, the direct inoculation of experimental animals has provided essential information on the transmissibility and compatibility of prion strains. More recently, cell-free molecular conversion assays have been used to examine the molecular compatibility on prion replication and zoonotic potential. One such assay is Protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification (PMCA), in which a small amount of infected tissue homogenate, containing PrPSc, is added as a seed to an excess of normal tissue homogenate containing PrPC, and prion conversion is accelerated by cycles of incubation and ultrasonication. PMCA has been used to measure the molecular feasibility of prion transmission in a range of scenarios using genotypically homologous and heterologous combinations of PrPSc seed and PrPC substrate. Furthermore, this method can be used to speculate on the molecular profile of PrPSc that might arise from a zoonotic transmission. We discuss the experimental approaches that have been used to model both the intra- and inter-species molecular compatibility of prions, and the factors affecting PrPc to PrPSc conversion and zoonotic potential. We conclude that cell-free prion protein conversion assays, especially PMCA, are useful, rapid and low-cost approaches for elucidating the mechanisms of prion propagation and assessing the risk of animal prions to humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander H Peden
- National CJD Research & Surveillance Unit, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, Deanery of Clinical Medicine, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Suzanne Suleiman
- National CJD Research & Surveillance Unit, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, Deanery of Clinical Medicine, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Marcelo A Barria
- National CJD Research & Surveillance Unit, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, Deanery of Clinical Medicine, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
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Güere ME, Våge J, Tharaldsen H, Kvie KS, Bårdsen BJ, Benestad SL, Vikøren T, Madslien K, Rolandsen CM, Tranulis MA, Røed KH. Chronic wasting disease in Norway-A survey of prion protein gene variation among cervids. Transbound Emerg Dis 2021; 69:e20-e31. [PMID: 34346562 DOI: 10.1111/tbed.14258] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2021] [Revised: 07/21/2021] [Accepted: 07/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Susceptibility of cervids to Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), a prion disease, can be modulated by variations in the prion protein gene (PRNP), encoding the cellular prion protein (PrPC ). In prion diseases, PrPC is conformationally converted to pathogenic conformers (PrPSc ), aggregates of which comprise infectious prions. CWD has recently been observed in its contagious form in Norwegian reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) and in novel, potentially sporadic forms, here called 'atypical CWD', in moose (Alces alces) and red deer (Cervus elaphus). To estimate relative susceptibility of different Norwegian cervid species to CWD, their non-synonymous PRNP variants were analyzed. In reindeer, seven PRNP alleles were observed and in red deer and moose two alleles were present, whereas roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) PRNP was monomorphic. One 'archetypal' PRNP allele associated with susceptibility was common to all four cervid species. The distribution of PRNP alleles differed between wild and semi-domesticated reindeer, with alleles associated with a high susceptibility occurring, on average, above 55% in wild reindeer and below 20% in semi-domesticated reindeer. This difference may reflect the diverse origins of the populations and/or selection processes during domestication and breeding. Overall, PRNP genetic data indicate considerable susceptibility to CWD among Norwegian cervids and suggest that PRNP homozygosity may be a risk factor for the atypical CWD observed in moose. The CWD isolates found in the Norwegian cervid species differ from those previously found in Canada and USA. Our study provides an overview of the PRNP genetics in populations exposed to these emerging strains that will provide a basis for understanding these strains' dynamics in relation to PRNP variability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mariella Evelyn Güere
- Department of Preclinical Sciences and Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway
| | - Jørn Våge
- Norwegian Veterinary Institute, OIE Reference Laboratory for CWD, Ås, Norway
| | - Helene Tharaldsen
- Department of Preclinical Sciences and Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway
| | - Kjersti Sternang Kvie
- Department of Preclinical Sciences and Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway
| | - Bård-Jørgen Bårdsen
- Arctic Ecology Department, Fram Centre, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Tromsø, Norway
| | | | - Turid Vikøren
- Norwegian Veterinary Institute, OIE Reference Laboratory for CWD, Ås, Norway
| | - Knut Madslien
- Norwegian Veterinary Institute, OIE Reference Laboratory for CWD, Ås, Norway
| | - Christer Moe Rolandsen
- Terrestrial Ecology Department, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Michael Andreas Tranulis
- Department of Preclinical Sciences and Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway
| | - Knut Håkon Røed
- Department of Preclinical Sciences and Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway
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35
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Arnold M, Ru G, Simmons M, Vidal‐Diez A, Ortiz‐Pelaez A, Stella P. Scientific report on the analysis of the 2-year compulsory intensified monitoring of atypical scrapie. EFSA J 2021; 19:e06686. [PMID: 34262626 PMCID: PMC8265166 DOI: 10.2903/j.efsa.2021.6686] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The European Commission asked EFSA whether the scientific data on the 2-year intensified monitoring in atypical scrapie (AS) outbreaks (2013-2020) provide any evidence on the contagiousness of AS, and whether they added any new knowledge on the epidemiology of AS. An ad hoc data set from intensified monitoring in 22 countries with index case/s of AS in sheep and/or goats (742 flocks from 20 countries, 76 herds from 11 countries) was analysed. No secondary cases were confirmed in goat herds, while 35 secondary cases were confirmed in 28 sheep flocks from eight countries. The results of the calculated design prevalence and of a model simulation indicated that the intensified monitoring had limited ability to detect AS, with no difference between countries with or without secondary cases. A regression model showed an increased, but not statistically significant, prevalence (adjusted by surveillance stream) of secondary cases in infected flocks compared with that of index cases in the non-infected flocks (general population). A simulation model of within-flock transmission, comparing a contagious (i.e. transmissible between animals under natural conditions) with a non-contagious scenario, produced a better fit of the observed data with the non-contagious scenario, in which each sheep in a flock had the same probability of developing AS in the first year of life. Based on the analyses performed, and considering uncertainties and data limitations, it was concluded that there is no new evidence that AS can be transmitted between animals under natural conditions, and it is considered more likely (subjective probability range 50-66%) that AS is a non-contagious, rather than a contagious disease. The analysis of the data of the EU intensified monitoring in atypical scrapie infected flocks/herds confirmed some of the known epidemiological features of AS but identified that major knowledge gaps still remain.
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Marín-Moreno A, Aguilar-Calvo P, Espinosa JC, Zamora-Ceballos M, Pitarch JL, González L, Fernández-Borges N, Orge L, Andréoletti O, Nonno R, Torres JM. Classical scrapie in small ruminants is caused by at least four different prion strains. Vet Res 2021; 52:57. [PMID: 33858518 PMCID: PMC8048364 DOI: 10.1186/s13567-021-00929-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2020] [Accepted: 03/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The diversity of goat scrapie strains in Europe has recently been studied using bioassays in a wide collection of rodent models, resulting in the classification of classical scrapie into four different categories. However, the sole use of the first passage does not lead to isolate adaptation and identification of the strains involved and might therefore lead to misclassification of some scrapie isolates. Therefore, this work reports the complete transmission study of a wide collection of goat transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) isolates by intracranial inoculation in two transgenic mouse lines overexpressing either small ruminant (TgGoat-ARQ) or bovine (TgBov) PrPC. To compare scrapie strains in sheep and goats, sheep scrapie isolates from different European countries were also included in the study. Once the species barrier phenomenon was overcome, an accurate classification of the isolates was attained. Thus, the use of just two rodent models allowed us to fully differentiate at least four different classical scrapie strains in small ruminants and to identify isolates containing mixtures of strains. This work reinforces the idea that classical scrapie in small ruminants is a prion disease caused by multiple different prion strains and not by a single strain, as is the case for epidemic classical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE-C). In addition, the clear dissimilarity between the different scrapie strains and BSE-C does not support the idea that classical scrapie is the origin of epidemic BSE-C.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alba Marín-Moreno
- Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (CISA-INIA), Valdeolmos, Madrid, Spain
| | - Patricia Aguilar-Calvo
- Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (CISA-INIA), Valdeolmos, Madrid, Spain.,Departments of Pathology and Medicine, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Juan Carlos Espinosa
- Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (CISA-INIA), Valdeolmos, Madrid, Spain
| | | | - José Luis Pitarch
- Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (CISA-INIA), Valdeolmos, Madrid, Spain
| | | | | | - Leonor Orge
- Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária, Oeiras, Portugal
| | - Olivier Andréoletti
- UMR INRAE ENVT 1225-IHAP, École Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse, Toulouse, France
| | - Romolo Nonno
- Department of Veterinary Public Health, Nutrition and Food Safety, Istituto Superiore di Sanitá, Rome, Italy
| | - Juan María Torres
- Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (CISA-INIA), Valdeolmos, Madrid, Spain.
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37
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Neuropathology of Animal Prion Diseases. Biomolecules 2021; 11:biom11030466. [PMID: 33801117 PMCID: PMC8004141 DOI: 10.3390/biom11030466] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2021] [Revised: 03/04/2021] [Accepted: 03/18/2021] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs) or prion diseases are a fatal group of infectious, inherited and spontaneous neurodegenerative diseases affecting human and animals. They are caused by the conversion of cellular prion protein (PrPC) into a misfolded pathological isoform (PrPSc or prion- proteinaceous infectious particle) that self-propagates by conformational conversion of PrPC. Yet by an unknown mechanism, PrPC can fold into different PrPSc conformers that may result in different prion strains that display specific disease phenotype (incubation time, clinical signs and lesion profile). Although the pathways for neurodegeneration as well as the involvement of brain inflammation in these diseases are not well understood, the spongiform changes, neuronal loss, gliosis and accumulation of PrPSc are the characteristic neuropathological lesions. Scrapie affecting small ruminants was the first identified TSE and has been considered the archetype of prion diseases, though atypical and new animal prion diseases continue to emerge highlighting the importance to investigate the lesion profile in naturally affected animals. In this report, we review the neuropathology and the neuroinflammation of animal prion diseases in natural hosts from scrapie, going through the zoonotic bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the chronic wasting disease (CWD) to the newly identified camel prion disease (CPD).
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38
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Allelic Interference in Prion Replication Is Modulated by the Convertibility of the Interfering PrP C and Other Host-Specific Factors. mBio 2021; 12:mBio.03508-20. [PMID: 33727358 PMCID: PMC8092304 DOI: 10.1128/mbio.03508-20] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Prion propagation can be interfered with by the expression of a second prion protein in the host. In the present study, we investigated prion propagation in a host expressing two different prion protein genes. Early studies in transgenic mouse lines have shown that the coexpression of endogenous murine prion protein (PrPC) and transgenic PrPC from another species either inhibits or allows the propagation of prions, depending on the infecting prion strain and interacting protein species. The way whereby this phenomenon, so-called “interference,” is modulated remains to be determined. In this study, different transgenic mouse lines were crossbred to produce mice coexpressing bovine and porcine PrPC, bovine and murine PrPC, or murine and porcine PrPC. These animals and their respective hemizygous controls were inoculated with several prion strains from different sources (cattle, mice, and pigs) to examine the effects of the simultaneous presence of PrPC from two different species. Our results indicate interference with the infection process, manifested as extended survival times and reduced attack rates. The interference with the infectious process was reduced or absent when the potentiality interfering PrPC species was efficiently converted by the inoculated agent. However, the propagation of the endogenous murine PrPSc was favored, allowing us to speculate that host-specific factors may disturb the interference caused by the coexpression of an exogenous second PrPC.
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Classical and Atypical Scrapie in Sheep and Goats. Review on the Etiology, Genetic Factors, Pathogenesis, Diagnosis, and Control Measures of Both Diseases. Animals (Basel) 2021; 11:ani11030691. [PMID: 33806658 PMCID: PMC7999988 DOI: 10.3390/ani11030691] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2020] [Revised: 02/23/2021] [Accepted: 02/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Prion diseases, such as scrapie, are neurodegenerative diseases with a fatal outcome, caused by a conformational change of the cellular prion protein (PrPC), originating with the pathogenic form (PrPSc). Classical scrapie in small ruminants is the paradigm of prion diseases, as it was the first transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) described and is the most studied. It is necessary to understand the etiological properties, the relevance of the transmission pathways, the infectivity of the tissues, and how we can improve the detection of the prion protein to encourage detection of the disease. The aim of this review is to perform an overview of classical and atypical scrapie disease in sheep and goats, detailing those special issues of the disease, such as genetic factors, diagnostic procedures, and surveillance approaches carried out in the European Union with the objective of controlling the dissemination of scrapie disease.
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40
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Transmission of the atypical/Nor98 scrapie agent to Suffolk sheep with VRQ/ARQ, ARQ/ARQ, and ARQ/ARR genotypes. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0246503. [PMID: 33571246 PMCID: PMC7877616 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246503] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2020] [Accepted: 01/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Scrapie is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy that occurs in sheep. Atypical/Nor98 scrapie occurs in sheep that tend to be resistant to classical scrapie and it is thought to occur spontaneously. The purpose of this study was to test the transmission of the Atypical/Nor98 scrapie agent in three genotypes of Suffolk sheep and characterize the distribution of misfolded prion protein (PrPSc). Ten sheep were intracranially inoculated with brain homogenate from a sheep with Atypical/Nor98 scrapie. All sheep with the ARQ/ARQ and ARQ/ARR genotypes developed Atypical/Nor98 scrapie confirmed by immunohistochemistry, and one sheep with the VRQ/ARQ genotype had detectable PrPSc consistent with Atypical/Nor98 scrapie at the experimental endpoint of 8 years. Sheep with mild early accumulations of PrPSc in the cerebellum had concomitant retinal PrPSc. Accordingly, large amounts of retinal PrPSc were identified in clinically affected sheep and sheep with dense accumulations of PrPSc in the cerebellum.
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41
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Mysterud A, Ytrehus B, Tranulis MA, Rauset GR, Rolandsen CM, Strand O. Antler cannibalism in reindeer. Sci Rep 2020; 10:22168. [PMID: 33335134 PMCID: PMC7747554 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-79050-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2020] [Accepted: 12/03/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Prion diseases constitute a class of invariably fatal and degenerative encephalopathies. Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a contagious prion disease among cervids, which is spreading and causing marked population declines in USA and Canada. The first outbreak of CWD in Europe was discovered in a reindeer population in Norway in 2016. In the worst-case scenario with continental-wide spreading of CWD in Eurasia, an annual harvest of around 4 million cervids is at stake only in Europe, with huge economic and cultural significance. An in situ origin of CWD was suspected, and it appear urgent to identify the likely cause to prevent future emergences. Here, we document the novel phenomenon of extensive antler cannibalism prior to shedding among reindeer in the CWD-infected population. The extent of antler cannibalism increased over the last decades when CWD emerged, and included ingestion of vascularized antlers. Ingestion of tissues from conspecifics is a risk factor for the emergence of prion diseases, where the presence of extensive antler cannibalism opens the intriguing possibility of a ‘Kuru-analogue’ origin of CWD among the reindeer in Europe. Based on general insight on pathology of prion diseases and strain selection processes, we propose an hypothesis for how contagious CWD may emerge from sporadic CWD under the unique epidemiological conditions we document here. More research is required to document the presence of prions in reindeer antlers, and whether antler cannibalism actually led to a strain selection process and the emergence of a contagious form of CWD from a sporadic form of CWD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Atle Mysterud
- Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Blindern, P.O. Box 1066, 0316, Oslo, Norway.
| | - Bjørnar Ytrehus
- Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), Torgarden, P. O. Box 5685, 7485, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Michael A Tranulis
- Department of Preclinical Sciences and Pathology, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 369 Sentrum, 0102, Oslo, Norway
| | - Geir Rune Rauset
- Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), Torgarden, P. O. Box 5685, 7485, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Christer M Rolandsen
- Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), Torgarden, P. O. Box 5685, 7485, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Olav Strand
- Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), Torgarden, P. O. Box 5685, 7485, Trondheim, Norway
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42
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Mysterud A, Benestad SL, Rolandsen CM, Våge J. Policy implications of an expanded chronic wasting disease universe. J Appl Ecol 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.13783] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Atle Mysterud
- Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES) Department of Biosciences University of Oslo Oslo Norway
| | - Sylvie L. Benestad
- OIE Reference Laboratory for CWD Norwegian Veterinary Institute Oslo Norway
| | | | - Jørn Våge
- OIE Reference Laboratory for CWD Norwegian Veterinary Institute Oslo Norway
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43
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Marín-Moreno A, Espinosa JC, Torres JM. Transgenic mouse models for the study of prion diseases. PROGRESS IN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCE 2020; 175:147-177. [PMID: 32958231 DOI: 10.1016/bs.pmbts.2020.08.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
Prions are unique agents that challenge the molecular biology dogma by transmitting information on the protein level. They cause neurodegenerative diseases that lack of any cure or treatment called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. The function of the normal form of the prion protein, the exact mechanism of prion propagation between species as well as at the cellular level and neuron degeneration remains elusive. However, great amount of information known for all these aspects has been achieved thanks to the use of animal models and more precisely to transgenic mouse models. In this chapter, the main contributions of these powerful research tools in the prion field are revised.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alba Marín-Moreno
- Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (CISA-INIA), Madrid, Spain
| | | | - Juan María Torres
- Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (CISA-INIA), Madrid, Spain.
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44
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Will there be any more classical scrapie cases in sheep in Great Britain? A modelling study to predict future cases. Epidemiol Infect 2020; 148:e190. [PMID: 32829733 PMCID: PMC7471572 DOI: 10.1017/s0950268820001855] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
The aim of this study was to apply a back-calculation model to Great Britain (GB) classical scrapie surveillance data, and use this model to estimate how many more cases might be expected, and over what time frame these cases might occur. A back-calculation model was applied to scrapie surveillance data between 2005 and 2019 to estimate the annual rate of decline of classical scrapie. This rate was then extrapolated to predict the number of future cases each year going forward. The model shows that there may be yet further cases of classical scrapie in GB. These will most likely occur in the fallen stock scheme, with approximately a 25% probability of at least 1 further scrapie positive, with a very low probability (~0.2%) of having up to three additional scrapie positives. This highlights the difficulty of completely eliminating all further cases, even in the presence of very effective control measures.
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45
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Abstract
In sheep, scrapie is a fatal neurologic disease that is caused by a misfolded protein called a prion (designated PrPSc). The normal cellular prion protein (PrPC) is encoded by an endogenous gene, PRNP, that is present in high concentrations within the CNS. Although a broad range of functions has been described for PrPC, its entire range of functions has yet to be fully elucidated. Accumulation of PrPSc results in neurodegeneration. The PRNP gene has several naturally occurring polymorphisms, and there is a strong correlation between scrapie susceptibility and PRNP genotype. The cornerstone of scrapie eradication programs is the selection of scrapie-resistant genotypes to eliminate classical scrapie. Transmission of classical scrapie in sheep occurs during the prenatal and periparturient periods when lambs are highly susceptible. Initially, the scrapie agent is disseminated throughout the lymphoid system and into the CNS. Shedding of the scrapie agent occurs before the onset of clinical signs. In contrast to classical scrapie, atypical scrapie is believed to be a spontaneous disease that occurs in isolated instances in older animals within a flock. The agent that causes atypical scrapie is not considered to be naturally transmissible. Transmission of the scrapie agent to species other than sheep, including deer, has been experimentally demonstrated as has the transmission of nonscrapie prion agents to sheep. The purpose of this review is to outline the current methods for diagnosing scrapie in sheep and the techniques used for studying the pathogenesis and host range of the scrapie agent. Also discussed is the US scrapie eradication program including recent updates.
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46
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Krance SH, Luke R, Shenouda M, Israwi AR, Colpitts SJ, Darwish L, Strauss M, Watts JC. Cellular models for discovering prion disease therapeutics: Progress and challenges. J Neurochem 2020; 153:150-172. [PMID: 31943194 DOI: 10.1111/jnc.14956] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2019] [Revised: 01/07/2020] [Accepted: 01/08/2020] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Prions, which cause fatal neurodegenerative disorders such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, are misfolded and infectious protein aggregates. Currently, there are no treatments available to halt or even delay the progression of prion disease in the brain. The infectious nature of prions has resulted in animal paradigms that accurately recapitulate all aspects of prion disease, and these have proven to be instrumental for testing the efficacy of candidate therapeutics. Nonetheless, infection of cultured cells with prions provides a much more powerful system for identifying molecules capable of interfering with prion propagation. Certain lines of cultured cells can be chronically infected with various types of mouse prions, and these models have been used to unearth candidate anti-prion drugs that are at least partially efficacious when administered to prion-infected rodents. However, these studies have also revealed that not all types of prions are equal, and that drugs active against mouse prions are not necessarily effective against prions from other species. Despite some recent progress, the number of cellular models available for studying non-mouse prions remains limited. In particular, human prions have proven to be particularly challenging to propagate in cultured cells, which has severely hindered the discovery of drugs for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. In this review, we summarize the cellular models that are presently available for discovering and testing drugs capable of blocking the propagation of prions and highlight challenges that remain on the path towards developing therapies for prion disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Saffire H Krance
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.,Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Russell Luke
- Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Marc Shenouda
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.,Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Ahmad R Israwi
- Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Sarah J Colpitts
- Department of Immunology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Lina Darwish
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.,Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Maximilian Strauss
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.,Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Joel C Watts
- Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.,Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
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47
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Espinosa JC, Marín-Moreno A, Aguilar-Calvo P, Benestad SL, Andreoletti O, Torres JM. Porcine Prion Protein as a Paradigm of Limited Susceptibility to Prion Strain Propagation. J Infect Dis 2020; 223:1103-1112. [PMID: 31919511 PMCID: PMC8006416 DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiz646] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2019] [Accepted: 12/20/2019] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Although experimental transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) to pigs and transgenic mice expressing pig cellular prion protein (PrPC) (porcine PrP [PoPrP]-Tg001) has been described, no natural cases of prion diseases in pig were reported. This study analyzed pig-PrPC susceptibility to different prion strains using PoPrP-Tg001 mice either as animal bioassay or as substrate for protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA). A panel of isolates representatives of different prion strains was selected, including classic and atypical/Nor98 scrapie, atypical-BSE, rodent scrapie, human Creutzfeldt-Jakob-disease and classic BSE from different species. Bioassay proved that PoPrP-Tg001-mice were susceptible only to the classic BSE agent, and PMCA results indicate that only classic BSE can convert pig-PrPC into scrapie-type PrP (PrPSc), independently of the species origin. Therefore, conformational flexibility constraints associated with pig-PrP would limit the number of permissible PrPSc conformations compatible with pig-PrPC, thus suggesting that pig-PrPC may constitute a paradigm of low conformational flexibility that could confer high resistance to the diversity of prion strains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juan Carlos Espinosa
- Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (CISA-INIA), Valdeolmos, Madrid, Spain
| | - Alba Marín-Moreno
- Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (CISA-INIA), Valdeolmos, Madrid, Spain
| | | | | | - Olivier Andreoletti
- UMR Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)/École Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse (ENVT) 1225, Interactions Hôtes Agents Pathogènes, Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse, Toulouse, France
| | - Juan María Torres
- Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (CISA-INIA), Valdeolmos, Madrid, Spain
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48
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Nonno R, Marin-Moreno A, Carlos Espinosa J, Fast C, Van Keulen L, Spiropoulos J, Lantier I, Andreoletti O, Pirisinu L, Di Bari MA, Aguilar-Calvo P, Sklaviadis T, Papasavva-Stylianou P, Acutis PL, Acin C, Bossers A, Jacobs JG, Vaccari G, D'Agostino C, Chiappini B, Lantier F, Groschup MH, Agrimi U, Maria Torres J, Langeveld JPM. Characterization of goat prions demonstrates geographical variation of scrapie strains in Europe and reveals the composite nature of prion strains. Sci Rep 2020; 10:19. [PMID: 31913327 PMCID: PMC6949283 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-57005-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2019] [Accepted: 12/16/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is the only animal prion which has been recognized as a zoonotic agent so far. The identification of BSE in two goats raised the need to reliably identify BSE in small ruminants. However, our understanding of scrapie strain diversity in small ruminants remains ill-defined, thus limiting the accuracy of BSE surveillance and spreading fear that BSE might lurk unrecognized in goats. We investigated prion strain diversity in a large panel of European goats by a novel experimental approach that, instead of assessing the neuropathological profile after serial transmissions in a single animal model, was based on the direct interaction of prion isolates with several recipient rodent models expressing small ruminants or heterologous prion proteins. The findings show that the biological properties of scrapie isolates display different patterns of geographical distribution in Europe and suggest that goat BSE could be reliably discriminated from a wide range of biologically and geographically diverse goat prion isolates. Finally, most field prion isolates showed composite strain features, with discrete strain components or sub-strains being present in different proportions in individual goats or tissues. This has important implications for understanding the nature and evolution of scrapie strains and their transmissibility to other species, including humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Romolo Nonno
- Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Rome, Italy.
| | | | | | - Christine Fast
- Institute of Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, Greifswald-Isle of Riems, Germany
| | | | - John Spiropoulos
- Animal and Plant Health Agency, New Haw, Addlestone, Surrey, United Kingdom
| | - Isabelle Lantier
- INRA-Centre Val de Loire, Infectiologie et Santé Publique, Nouzilly, France
| | - Olivier Andreoletti
- UMR INRA ENVT 1225- IHAP, École Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse, Toulouse, France
| | - Laura Pirisinu
- Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Rome, Italy
| | - Michele A Di Bari
- Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Theodoros Sklaviadis
- Laboratory of Pharmacology, School of Health Sciences, Department of Pharmacy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | | | - Pier Luigi Acutis
- Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d'Aosta, Torino, Italy
| | - Cristina Acin
- Centro de Encefalopatías y Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Alex Bossers
- Wageningen BioVeterinary Research, Lelystad, the Netherlands
| | - Jorge G Jacobs
- Wageningen BioVeterinary Research, Lelystad, the Netherlands
| | - Gabriele Vaccari
- Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Rome, Italy
| | - Claudia D'Agostino
- Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Rome, Italy
| | - Barbara Chiappini
- Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Rome, Italy
| | - Frederic Lantier
- INRA-Centre Val de Loire, Infectiologie et Santé Publique, Nouzilly, France
| | - Martin H Groschup
- Institute of Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, Greifswald-Isle of Riems, Germany
| | - Umberto Agrimi
- Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Rome, Italy
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Holec SA, Block AJ, Bartz JC. The role of prion strain diversity in the development of successful therapeutic treatments. PROGRESS IN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCE 2020; 175:77-119. [PMID: 32958242 PMCID: PMC8939712 DOI: 10.1016/bs.pmbts.2020.07.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Prions are a self-propagating misfolded conformation of a cellular protein. Prions are found in several eukaryotic organisms with mammalian prion diseases encompassing a wide range of disorders. The first recognized prion disease, the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), affect several species including humans. Alzheimer's disease, synucleinopathies, and tauopathies share a similar mechanism of self-propagation of the prion form of the disease-specific protein reminiscent of the infection process of TSEs. Strain diversity in prion disease is characterized by differences in the phenotype of disease that is hypothesized to be encoded by strain-specific conformations of the prion form of the disease-specific protein. Prion therapeutics that target the prion form of the disease-specific protein can lead to the emergence of drug-resistant strains of prions, consistent with the hypothesis that prion strains exist as a dynamic mixture of a dominant strain in combination with minor substrains. To overcome this obstacle, therapies that reduce or eliminate the template of conversion are efficacious, may reverse neuropathology, and do not result in the emergence of drug resistance. Recent advancements in preclinical diagnosis of prion infection may allow for a combinational approach that treats the prion form and the precursor protein to effectively treat prion diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara A.M. Holec
- Institute for Applied Life Sciences and Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, United States,Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, United States
| | - Alyssa J. Block
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, United States
| | - Jason C. Bartz
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, United States,Corresponding author:
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Abstract
Atypical/Nor98 scrapie (AS) is a prion disease of small ruminants. Currently there are no efficient measures to control this form of prion disease, and, importantly, the zoonotic potential and the risk that AS might represent for other farmed animal species remains largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the capacity of AS to propagate in bovine PrP transgenic mice. Unexpectedly, the transmission of AS isolates originating from 5 different European countries to bovine PrP mice resulted in the propagation of the classical BSE (c-BSE) agent. Detection of prion seeding activity in vitro by protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) demonstrated that low levels of the c-BSE agent were present in the original AS isolates. C-BSE prion seeding activity was also detected in brain tissue of ovine PrP mice inoculated with limiting dilutions (endpoint titration) of ovine AS isolates. These results are consistent with the emergence and replication of c-BSE prions during the in vivo propagation of AS isolates in the natural host. These data also indicate that c-BSE prions, a known zonotic agent in humans, can emerge as a dominant prion strain during passage of AS between different species. These findings provide an unprecedented insight into the evolution of mammalian prion strain properties triggered by intra- and interspecies passage. From a public health perspective, the presence of c-BSE in AS isolates suggest that cattle exposure to small ruminant tissues and products could lead to new occurrences of c-BSE.
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