NR AXJC
AU Beekes,M.; Schulz-Schaeffer,W.J.; Wrede,A.; Wemheuer,W.; Brenig,B.; Kratzel,C.; Lemmer,K.; Buschmann,A.; Groschup,M.H.; Terytze,K.; Peters,R.; Seidel,B.; Thomzig,A.
TI Detection of Pathological Prion Protein PrPsc in the Skin of Animals with Experimental or Natural Scrapie, and in Prion Contaminated Soil
QU International Conference - Prion 2007 (26.-28.9.2007) Edinburgh International Conference Centre, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK - Book of Abstracts: Epidemiology, Risk Assessment and Transmission P04.22
IA http://www.prion2007.com/pdf/Prion Book of Abstracts.pdf
PT Konferenz-Poster
AB Despite considerable research efforts the mechanism of natural scrapie transmission in the field has resisted complete elucidation so far. Contagious spread of scrapie may possibly involve dissemination of prions from unknown reservoirs in peripheral tissues into the environment, and subsequent infection of a new host via the alimentary tract or other sites of entry. Against this background the skin of hamsters perorally challenged with scrapie and of naturally infected scrapie sheep was examined for the presence of PrPsc. In orally challenged hamsters PrPsc was detected before the onset of symptoms, but the bulk of skin-associated PrPsc accumulated in the clinical phase. PrPsc was localized in nerve fibers within the skin but not in keratinocytes, and the deposition of PrPsc in skin showed no dependence from the route of infection and lymphotropic dissemination. The findings indicated a neurally-mediated centrifugal spread of prions to the skin. Additional Western blot examinations of sheep naturally infected with scrapie revealed PrPsc in skin samples from two out of five animals. Wether the skin may provide a reservoir for prions also in CWD, BSE or vCJD, and the role of the skin in relation to the dissemination of scrapie prions in the field needs to be further investigated. Similarly, the role of soil in the context of natural scrapie transmission is unclear. Therefore, outdoor lysimeter experiments simulating the situation on pastures using soil spiked with scrapie-infected hamster brain homogenate were perforemd. This revealed that PrPsc remains persistent in soil over a period of at least 29 months. Furthermore, PrPsc extracted from skin and soil was found to provide a catalytically active seed in the serial protein misfolding cyclic amplification (sPMCA) reaction. This opens promising perspectives for considerably improving the detectability of prions in both peripheral mammalian tissues and the environment.
AD M. Beekes, C. Kratzel, K. Lemmer, A. Thomzig, Robert Koch-Institut, Germany; W. Schulz-Schaeffer, A. Wrede, Universitätsklinikum Göttingen, Germany; W. Wemheuer, B. Brenig, GeorgAugust-Universität Göttingen, Germany; A. Buschmann, M. Groschup, Friedrich-Löffler-Institut, Germany; K. Terytze, German Federal Environmental Agency, Germany; R. Peters, B. Seidel, Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology, Germany
SP englisch
PO Schottland