Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are a group of neurodegenerative diseases affecting a wide variety of mammals including sheep and goats (scrapie), cervid spp. (chronic wasting disease), and humans (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease). Our studies are focused on the prion protein (PrP) due to the critical role of this protein in controlling many aspects of TSE pathogenesis such as susceptibility to disease and interspecies transmission. A central event in TSE disease involves the conversion of the normal host cellular prion protein (PrPC) to a partially protease-resistant, aggregated, disease-associated isoform (PrPSc). TSE-induced pathology is usually associated with PrP-res deposition, but the mechanism of neurodegeneration is not understood. The nature of the infectious agent, called a prion, remains uncertain but is thought to be composed primarily of misfolded PrP, perhaps in complex with another host accessory molecule(s). PrPC is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored glycoprotein, and the majority of PrPSc produced in vivo contains this GPI anchor. Membrane association of both normal and disease-associated PrP isoforms may influence many features of prion disease and PrPC function. Our work is focused on elucidating mechanisms of uptake, replication, and spread of prions, in addition to determining the biochemical composition of mammalian prions. In 2010, we have: 1) further characterized our tetracysteine (TC) tagging system for fluorescent labeling of PrPC by showing that TC tag insertion has limited steric effects on protein-protein interactions and PrPC metabolism, suggesting the TC tag can be used as a compact probe for sites of interaction between proteins;2) continued our work with a new compound that should allow visualization of TC-tagged proteins by electron microscopy;3) shown that TSE disease can be induced in animals inoculated with misfolded aggregates of recombinant mouse PrP;and 4) established primary cell culture models for studying the trafficking of prion proteins.
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