In the interspecies transmission of prions, the species barrier influences the susceptibility of the host. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) prions affect a wide range of host species but do not affect hamsters. To study this species barrier, we analyzed the transmissibility of BSE prions to several lines of transgenic (Tg) mice, including those expressing mouse and hamster chimeric prion proteins (PrPCs) (MH2M and MHM2 mice). BSE prions were transmitted to ‘susceptible mice (MHM2, ICR)’, which harbored the mouse sequence at sub-region PrP131-188. However, BSE prions were not transmitted to ‘resistant mice (MH2M, TgHaNSE)’, which harbored the hamster sequence at that subregion. After the BSE prions were passaged once in wild-type mice, they could be transmitted to resistant mice. A BSE-like glycoform pattern of proteinase K-resistant prion protein (PrPcore) was detected in all of the susceptible mice. In contrast, in addition to PrPcore, further truncated PrP fragments existed in the resistant mice. These mixed PrP fragments might have resulted from the adaptation of resistant mice to BSE prions.
(Research Team for Prion Diseases, TEL +81-29-838-7708)
Reference:
- Yokoyama, T., et al. (2007) Arch. Virol. 152: 603-609.
- Yokoyama, T., et al. (2009) J. Gen. Virol. 90: 261-268.
