NR AUQK
AU Beekes,M.
TI On the trail of prions: Tracking, Typing, and Inactivating TSE agents
QU TSE-Forum, 6. Kongress - Nationale TSE-Forschungsplattform, Greifswald 26.6.-28.6.2006, Vortrag V-03
PT Konferenz-Vortrag
AB A key aim of the meeting of the TSE-Forum in Greifswald is to provide a review of the work and progress achieved by German research groups during the past five years. Against this background, we would like to present a summary of our findings in the following research areas: i) Routing of PrPsc to muscles in perorally acquired prion diseases, ii) strain differentiation in experimental rodent scrapie and BSE, and iii) removal and inactivation of prion contaminations attached to steel surfaces. In hamsters perorally challenged with scrapie the pathological prion protein PrPsc was found in muscle tissue at clinical stages of infection, and prior to the onset of symptoms. The observations in our hamster model of perorally transmitted scrapie provided substantial indications for centrifugal spread of infection from CNS motor neurons to myofibres. With the emergence of an increasing number of "atypical" scrapie cases in sheep, and the occurrence of BSE in a goat under natural conditions in France, a stringent epidemiological surveillance and reliable strain differentiation of TSEs in small ruminants appears to be of great importance. However, the discrimination between scrapie and BSE in sheep and goats is not straightforward. We addressed this diagnostic problem by structural characterization of pathological prion protein using Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, which appears as a promising tool for molecular strain typing without antibodies and without restriction to specific TSEs or mammalian species. Searching for effective yet instrument-friendly and routinely applicable procedures for the decontamination of surgical instruments from prions we pre-selected chemicals, device cleaners or disinfectants in an in vitro carrier assay using steel wires as PrPsc carriers, and subsequently validated the decontaminating activity of promising reagents in an in vivo carrier assay.
IN Bei oral mit Scrapie inokulierten Hamstern scheint die Infektiosität vom Zentralnervensystem über Motoneuronen in die Myofibrillen zu wandern. Mittels Fourier-transformierter Infrarotspektroskopie (FT-IR) entwickelt die Arbeitsgruppe des Autors eine vielversprechende Methode für die Scrapie-Stammtypisierung. Außerdem arbeit man an instrumentenschonenden Reinigungs- und Sterilisationsverfahren.
AD Michael Beekes, Robert-Koch-Institut Berlin, Nordufer 20, 13353 Berlin
SP englisch
PO Deutschland
OR Tagungsband