Scrapie is a naturally occurring spongiform encephalopathy of sheep and goats which cause clinically and pathological changes similar to those of Creutzfeld-Jakob and Kuru diseases of man. A unique protein called prion protein (PrP) has been found to be a major component of purified samples of scrapie infectivity and is believed by some people to be the actual infectious agent. We previously isolated two cDNA clones of the PrP mRNA from acrapie-infected mouse brain. In the past year, we have finished determining the complete sequence of these mouse prion protein cDNAs. Comparison of the sequence with that of hamster PrP indicated that these very homologous genes showed nearly equivalent evolutinary divergence in both their coding and noncoding regions which confirmed previous findings that the PrP genes are normal endogenous genes of many species rather than genes of an exogenous infectious agent. The possibility that post-translational modification of the endogenous gene product results in creation of the infectious scrapie agent has not been completely excluded. Although several attempts have been made to adapt the scrapie agent to in vitro growth, the few positive cultures reported have been of low titer. Nevertheless, adaptation of the agent to cell culture could permit detailed characterization of the agent and offer the possibility of in vitro titrations and a marked reduction in bioassay related problems. Toward this goal neuroblastoma cell lines of mouse origin were successfully infected with scrapie agent. Infected cultures were maintained through 21 passages, well beyond the number needed to assure that replication had occurred. Infection appeared to be species-specific in that agent derived from hamster brain did not infect the mouse derived neuroblastoma cell lines. Cells from currently infected cultures were cloned in hopes of increasing infectivity levels and additional cell lines are being analyzed in anticipation that others even more receptive to scrapie might be identified.
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| Meade-White, Kimberly; Race, Brent; Trifilo, Matthew et al. (2007) Resistance to chronic wasting disease in transgenic mice expressing a naturally occurring allelic variant of deer prion protein. J Virol 81:4533-9 |
| Raymond, Gregory J; Raymond, Lynne D; Meade-White, Kimberly D et al. (2007) Transmission and adaptation of chronic wasting disease to hamsters and transgenic mice: evidence for strains. J Virol 81:4305-14 |
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| Kocisko, David A; Vaillant, Andrew; Lee, Kil Sun et al. (2006) Potent antiscrapie activities of degenerate phosphorothioate oligonucleotides. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 50:1034-44 |
| Kocisko, David A; Caughey, Winslow S; Race, Richard E et al. (2006) A porphyrin increases survival time of mice after intracerebral prion infection. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 50:759-61 |
| Criado, Jose R; Sanchez-Alavez, Manuel; Conti, Bruno et al. (2005) Mice devoid of prion protein have cognitive deficits that are rescued by reconstitution of PrP in neurons. Neurobiol Dis 19:255-65 |
| Chesebro, Bruce; Trifilo, Matthew; Race, Richard et al. (2005) Anchorless prion protein results in infectious amyloid disease without clinical scrapie. Science 308:1435-9 |
| Silveira, Jay R; Raymond, Gregory J; Hughson, Andrew G et al. (2005) The most infectious prion protein particles. Nature 437:257-61 |
| Kocisko, David A; Morrey, John D; Race, Richard E et al. (2004) Evaluation of new cell culture inhibitors of protease-resistant prion protein against scrapie infection in mice. J Gen Virol 85:2479-83 |
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