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1.
《朊病毒》2013,7(3):172-178
The soluble cellular prion protein (PrPC) is best known for its association with prion disease (PrD) through its conversion to a pathogenic insoluble isoform (PrPSc). However, its deleterious effects independent of PrPSc have recently been observed not only in PrD but also in Alzheimer disease (AD), two diseases which mainly affect cognition. At the same time, PrPC itself seems to have broad physiologic functions including involvement in cognitive processes. The PrPC that is believed to be soluble and monomeric has so far been the only PrP conformer observed in the uninfected brain. In 2006, we identified an insoluble PrPC conformer (termed iPrPC) in uninfected human and animal brains. Remarkably, the PrPSc-like iPrPC shares the immunoreactivity behavior and fragmentation with a newly-identified PrPSc species in a novel human PrD termed variably protease-sensitive prionopathy. Moreover, iPrPC has been observed as the major PrP species that interacts with amyloid β (Aβ) in AD. This article highlights evidence of PrP involvement in two putatively beneficial and deleterious PrP-implicated pathways in cognition, and hypothesizes first, that beneficial and deleterious effects of PrPC are attributable to the chameleon-like conformation of the protein and second, that the iPrPC conformer is associated with PrD and AD.  相似文献   

2.
Prion diseases are caused by a conformational modification of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) into disease-specific forms, termed PrPSc, that have the ability to interact with PrPC promoting its conversion to PrPSc. In vitro studies demonstrated that anti-PrP antibodies inhibit this process. In particular, the single chain variable fragment D18 antibody (scFvD18) showed high efficiency in curing chronically prion-infected cells. This molecule binds the PrPC region involved in the interaction with PrPSc thus halting further prion formation. These findings prompted us to test the efficiency of scFvD18 in vivo. A recombinant Adeno-Associated Viral vector serotype 9 was used to deliver scFvD18 to the brain of mice that were subsequently infected by intraperitoneal route with the mouse-adapted scrapie strain RML. We found that the treatment was safe, prolonged the incubation time of scrapie-infected animals and decreased the burden of total proteinase-resistant PrPSc in the brain, suggesting that scFvD18 interferes with prion replication in vivo. This approach is relevant for designing new therapeutic strategies for prion diseases and other disorders characterized by protein misfolding.  相似文献   

3.
Prion diseases are fatal, neurodegenerative disorders in humans and animals and are characterized by the accumulation of an abnormally folded isoform of the cellular prion protein (PrPC), denoted PrPSc, which represents the major component of infectious scrapie prions. Characterization of the mechanism of conversion of PrPC into PrPSc and identification of the intracellular site where it occurs are among the most important questions in prion biology. Despite numerous efforts, both of these questions remain unsolved. We have quantitatively analyzed the distribution of PrPC and PrPSc and measured PrPSc levels in different infected neuronal cell lines in which protein trafficking has been selectively impaired. Our data exclude roles for both early and late endosomes and identify the endosomal recycling compartment as the likely site of prion conversion. These findings represent a fundamental step towards understanding the cellular mechanism of prion conversion and will allow the development of new therapeutic approaches for prion diseases.  相似文献   

4.
The causative agent of prion diseases is the pathological isoform (PrPSc) of the host-encoded cellular prion protein (PrPC). PrPSc has an identical amino acid sequence to PrPC; thus, it has been assumed that an immune response against PrPSc could not be found in prion-affected animals. In this study, we found the anti-prion protein (PrP) antibody at the terminal stage of mouse scrapie. Several sera from mice in the terminal stage of scrapie reacted to the recombinant mouse PrP (rMPrP) molecules and brain homogenates of mouse prion diseases. These results indicate that mouse could recognize PrPC or PrPSc as antigens by the host immune system. Furthermore, immunization with rMPrP generates high titers of anti-PrP antibodies in wild-type mice. Some anti-PrP antibodies immunized with rMPrP prevent PrPSc replication in vitro. The mouse sera from terminal prion disease have several wide epitopes, although mouse sera immunized with rMPrP possess narrow epitopes.  相似文献   

5.
《朊病毒》2013,7(4):383-390
Prion diseases are caused by a conformational modification of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) into disease-specific forms, termed PrPSc, that have the ability to interact with PrPC promoting its conversion to PrPSc. In vitro studies demonstrated that anti-PrP antibodies inhibit this process. In particular, the single chain variable fragment D18 antibody (scFvD18) showed high efficiency in curing chronically prion-infected cells. This molecule binds the PrPC region involved in the interaction with PrPSc thus halting further prion formation. These findings prompted us to test the efficiency of scFvD18 in vivo. A recombinant Adeno-Associated Viral vector serotype 9 was used to deliver scFvD18 to the brain of mice that were subsequently infected by intraperitoneal route with the mouse-adapted scrapie strain RML. We found that the treatment was safe, prolonged the incubation time of scrapie-infected animals and decreased the burden of total proteinase-resistant PrPSc in the brain, suggesting that scFvD18 interferes with prion replication in vivo. This approach is relevant for designing new therapeutic strategies for prion diseases and other disorders characterized by protein misfolding.  相似文献   

6.
Expression of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) is crucial for the development of prion diseases. Resistance to prion diseases can result from reduced availability of the prion protein or from amino acid changes in the prion protein sequence. We propose here that increased production of a natural PrP α-cleavage fragment, C1, is also associated with resistance to disease. We show, in brain tissue, that ARR homozygous sheep, associated with resistance to disease, produced PrPC comprised of 25% more C1 fragment than PrPC from the disease-susceptible ARQ homozygous and highly susceptible VRQ homozygous animals. Only the C1 fragment derived from the ARR allele inhibits in-vitro fibrillisation of other allelic PrPC variants. We propose that the increased α-cleavage of ovine ARR PrPC contributes to a dominant negative effect of this polymorphism on disease susceptibility. Furthermore, the significant reduction in PrPC β-cleavage product C2 in sheep of the ARR/ARR genotype compared to ARQ/ARQ and VRQ/VRQ genotypes, may add to the complexity of genetic determinants of prion disease susceptibility.  相似文献   

7.
1. Prion protein (PrPC) is a host-encoded glycoprotein constitutively expressed on the neuronal cell surface. Accumulation of its protease-resistant isoform is closely related to pathologic changes and prion propagation in the brain tissue of a series of prion diseases. However, the physiological role of PrPC remains to be elucidated.2. After long-term observation, we noted impaired motor coordination and loss of cerebellar Purkinje cells in the aged mice homozygous for a disrupted PrP gene, a finding which strongly suggests that PrPC plays a role in the long-term survival of Purkinje cells.3. We also describe the resistance of the PrP null mice to the prion, indicating the requirement of PrPC for both the development of prion diseases and the prion propagation.  相似文献   

8.
The cellular form of the prion protein (PrPC) is a sialoglycoprotein widely expressed in the central nervous system (CNS) of mammalian species during neurodevelopment and in adulthood. The location of the protein in the CNS may play a role in the susceptibility of a species to fatal prion diseases, which are also known as the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). To date, little is known about PrPC distribution in marsupial mammals, for which no naturally occurring prion diseases have been reported. To extend our understanding of varying PrPC expression profiles in different mammals we carried out a detailed expression analysis of PrPC distribution along the neurodevelopment of the metatherian South American short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica). We detected lower levels of PrPC in white matter fiber bundles of opossum CNS compared to mouse CNS. This result is consistent with a possible role for PrPC in the distinct neurodevelopment and neurocircuitry found in marsupials compared to other mammalian species.  相似文献   

9.
Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is the most prevalent manifestation of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies or prion diseases affecting humans. The disease encompasses a spectrum of clinical phenotypes that have been correlated with molecular subtypes that are characterized by the molecular mass of the protease-resistant fragment of the disease-related conformation of the prion protein and a polymorphism at codon 129 of the gene encoding the prion protein. A cell-free assay of prion protein misfolding was used to investigate the ability of these sporadic CJD molecular subtypes to propagate using brain-derived sources of the cellular prion protein (PrPC). This study confirmed the presence of three distinct sporadic CJD molecular subtypes with PrPC substrate requirements that reflected their codon 129 associations in vivo. However, the ability of a sporadic CJD molecular subtype to use a specific PrPC substrate was not determined solely by codon 129 as the efficiency of prion propagation was also influenced by the composition of the brain tissue from which the PrPC substrate was sourced, thus indicating that nuances in PrPC or additional factors may determine sporadic CJD subtype. The results of this study will aid in the design of diagnostic assays that can detect prion disease across the diversity of sporadic CJD subtypes.  相似文献   

10.
The soluble cellular prion protein (PrPC) is best known for its association with prion disease (PrD) through its conversion to a pathogenic insoluble isoform (PrPSc). However, its deleterious effects independent of PrPSc have recently been observed not only in PrD but also in Alzheimer disease (AD), two diseases which mainly affect cognition. At the same time, PrPC itself seems to have broad physiologic functions including involvement in cognitive processes. The PrPC that is believed to be soluble and monomeric has so far been the only PrP conformer observed in the uninfected brain. In 2006, we identified an insoluble PrPC conformer (termed iPrPC) in uninfected human and animal brains. Remarkably, the PrPSc-like iPrPC shares the immunoreactivity behavior and fragmentation with a newly-identified PrPSc species in a novel human PrD termed variably protease-sensitive prionopathy. Moreover, iPrPC has been observed as the major PrP species that interacts with amyloid β (Aβ) in AD. This article highlights evidence of PrP involvement in two putatively beneficial and deleterious PrP-implicated pathways in cognition and hypothesizes first, that beneficial and deleterious effects of PrPC are attributable to the chameleon-like conformation of the protein and second, that the iPrPC conformer is associated with PrD and AD.Key words: prion protein, prion disease, cognition, cognitive deficit, insoluble prion protein, Alzheimer disease, variably protease-sensitive prionopathy, dementia, memory  相似文献   

11.
Corruption of cellular prion protein (PrPC) function(s) at the plasma membrane of neurons is at the root of prion diseases, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and its variant in humans, and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathies, better known as mad cow disease, in cattle. The roles exerted by PrPC, however, remain poorly elucidated. With the perspective to grasp the molecular pathways of neurodegeneration occurring in prion diseases, and to identify therapeutic targets, achieving a better understanding of PrPC roles is a priority. Based on global approaches that compare the proteome and metabolome of the PrPC expressing 1C11 neuronal stem cell line to those of PrPnull-1C11 cells stably repressed for PrPC expression, we here unravel that PrPC contributes to the regulation of the energetic metabolism by orienting cells towards mitochondrial oxidative degradation of glucose. Through its coupling to cAMP/protein kinase A signaling, PrPC tones down the expression of the pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4 (PDK4). Such an event favors the transfer of pyruvate into mitochondria and its conversion into acetyl-CoA by the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex and, thereby, limits fatty acids β-oxidation and subsequent onset of oxidative stress conditions. The corruption of PrPC metabolic role by pathogenic prions PrPSc causes in the mouse hippocampus an imbalance between glucose oxidative degradation and fatty acids β-oxidation in a PDK4-dependent manner. The inhibition of PDK4 extends the survival of prion-infected mice, supporting that PrPSc-induced deregulation of PDK4 activity and subsequent metabolic derangements contribute to prion diseases. Our study posits PDK4 as a potential therapeutic target to fight against prion diseases.  相似文献   

12.
Prion diseases are a heterogeneous class of fatal neurodegenerative disorders associated with misfolding of host cellular prion protein (PrPC) into a pathological isoform, termed PrPSc. Prion diseases affect various mammals, including humans, and effective treatments are not available. Prion diseases are distinguished from other protein misfolding disorders – such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease – in that they are infectious. Prion diseases occur sporadically without any known exposure to infected material, and hereditary cases resulting from rare mutations in the prion protein have also been documented. The mechanistic underpinnings of prion and other neurodegenerative disorders remain poorly understood. Various proteomics techniques have been instrumental in early PrPSc detection, biomarker discovery, elucidation of PrPSc structure and mapping of biochemical pathways affected by pathogenesis. Moving forward, proteomics approaches will likely become more integrated into the clinical and research settings for the rapid diagnosis and characterization of prion pathogenesis.  相似文献   

13.
The agent that causes prion diseases is thought to be identical to PrPSc, a conformer of the normal prion protein PrPC. Recently a novel protein, termed Doppel (Dpl), was identified that shares significant biochemical and structural homology with PrPC. To investigate the function of Dpl in neurogenesis and in prion pathology, we generated embryonic stem (ES) cells harbouring a homozygous disruption of the Prnd gene that encodes Dpl. After in vitro differentiation and grafting into adult brains of PrPC-deficient Prnp0/0 mice, Dpl-deficient ES cell-derived grafts contained all neural lineages analyzed, including neurons and astrocytes. When Prnd-deficient neural tissue was inoculated with scrapie prions, typical features of prion pathology including spongiosis, gliosis and PrPSc accumulation, were observed. Therefore, Dpl is unlikely to exert a cell-autonomous function during neural differentiation and, in contrast to its homologue PrPC, is dispensable for prion disease progression and for generation of PrPSc.  相似文献   

14.
Protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) is a cell-free assay mimicking the prion replication process. However, constraints affecting PMCA have not been well-defined. Although cellular prion protein (PrPC) is required for prion replication, the influence of PrPC abundance on PMCA has not been assessed. Here, we show that PMCA was enhanced by using mouse brain material in which PrPC was overexpressed. Tg(MoPrP)4112 mice overexpressing PrPC supported more sensitive and efficient PMCA than wild type mice. As brain homogenate of Tg(MoPrP)4112 mice was diluted with PrPC-deficient brain material, PMCA became less robust. Our studies suggest that abundance of PrPC is a determinant that directs enhancement of PMCA. PMCA established here will contribute to optimizing conditions to enhance PrPSc amplification by using concentrated PrPC source and expands the use of this methodology.  相似文献   

15.
Prions are infectious proteins that are responsible for transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) and consist primarily of scrapie prion protein (PrPSc), a pathogenic isoform of the host-encoded cellular prion protein (PrPC). The absence of nucleic acids as essential components of the infectious prions is the most striking feature associated to these diseases. Additionally, different prion strains have been isolated from animal diseases despite the lack of DNA or RNA molecules. Mounting evidence suggests that prion-strain-specific features segregate with different PrPSc conformational and aggregation states.

Strains are of practical relevance in prion diseases as they can drastically differ in many aspects, such as incubation period, PrPSc biochemical profile (e.g., electrophoretic mobility and glycoform ratio) and distribution of brain lesions. Importantly, such different features are maintained after inoculation of a prion strain into genetically identical hosts and are relatively stable across serial passages.

This review focuses on the characterization of prion strains and on the wide range of important implications that the study of prion strains involves.  相似文献   

16.

Background  

The transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), otherwise known as the prion diseases, occur following the conversion of the normal cellular prion protein (PrPC) to an alternatively folded isoform (PrPSc). The accumulation of PrPSc within the brain leads to neurodegeneration through an unidentified mechanism. Since many neurodegenerative disorders including prion, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases may be modified by cholesterol synthesis inhibitors, the effects of prion infection on the cholesterol balance within neuronal cells were examined.  相似文献   

17.
The cellular prion protein (PrPC) is a membrane-bound glycoprotein especially abundant in the central nervous system (CNS). The scrapie prion protein (PrPSc, also termed prions) is responsible of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), a group of neurodegenerative diseases which affect humans and other mammal species, although the presence of PrPC is needed for the establishment and further evolution of prions.The present work compares the expression and localization of PrPC between healthy human brains and those suffering from Alzheimer disease (AD).In both situations we have observed a rostrocaudal decrease in the amount of PrPC within the CNS, both by immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry techniques. PrPC is higher expressed in our control brains than in AD cases. There was a neuronal loss and astogliosis in our AD cases. There was a tendency of a lesser expression of PrPC in AD cases than in healthy ones. And in AD cases, the intensity of the expression of the unglycosylated band is higher than the di- and monoglycosylated bands.With regards to amyloid plaques, those present in AD cases were positively labeled for PrPC, a result which is further supported by the presence of PrPC in the amyloid plaques of a transgenic line of mice mimicking AD.The work was done according to Helsinki Declaration of 1975, and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Navarre.Key words: cellular prion protein, Alzheimer disease, transgenic mice  相似文献   

18.
Prion disease is caused by a single pathogenic protein (PrPSc), an abnormal conformer of the normal cellular prion protein PrPC. Depletion of PrPC in prion knockout mice makes them resistant to prion disease. Thus, gene silencing of the Prnp gene is a promising effective therapeutic approach. Here, we examined adeno-associated virus vector type 2 encoding a short hairpin RNA targeting Prnp mRNA (AAV2-PrP-shRNA) to suppress PrPC expression both in vitro and in vivo. AAV2-PrP-shRNA treatment suppressed PrP levels and prevented dendritic degeneration in RML-infected brain aggregate cultures. Infusion of AAV2-PrP-shRNA-eGFP into the thalamus of CD-1 mice showed that eGFP was transported to the cerebral cortex via anterograde transport and the overall PrPC levels were reduced by ∼70% within 4 weeks. For therapeutic purposes, we treated RML-infected CD-1 mice with AAV2-PrP-shRNA beginning at 50 days post inoculation. Although AAV2-PrP-shRNA focally suppressed PrPSc formation in the thalamic infusion site by ∼75%, it did not suppress PrPSc formation efficiently in other regions of the brain. Survival of mice was not extended compared to the untreated controls. Global suppression of PrPC in the brain is required for successful therapy of prion diseases.  相似文献   

19.
The central event in the pathogenesis of prion diseases involves a conversion of the host-encoded cellular prion protein PrPC into its pathogenic isoform PrPSc 1. PrPC is detergent-soluble and sensitive to proteinase K (PK)-digestion, whereas PrPSc forms detergent-insoluble aggregates and is partially resistant to PK2-6. The conversion of PrPC to PrPSc is known to involve a conformational transition of α-helical to β-sheet structures of the protein. However, the in vivo pathway is still poorly understood. A tentative endogenous PrPSc, intermediate PrP* or "silent prion", has yet to be identified in the uninfected brain7.Using a combination of biophysical and biochemical approaches, we identified insoluble PrPC aggregates (designated iPrPC) from uninfected mammalian brains and cultured neuronal cells8, 9. Here, we describe detailed procedures of these methods, including ultracentrifugation in detergent buffer, sucrose step gradient sedimentation, size exclusion chromatography, iPrP enrichment by gene 5 protein (g5p) that specifically bind to structurally altered PrP forms10, and PK-treatment. The combination of these approaches isolates not only insoluble PrPSc and PrPC aggregates but also soluble PrPC oligomers from the normal human brain. Since the protocols described here have been used to isolate both PrPSc from infected brains and iPrPC from uninfected brains, they provide us with an opportunity to compare differences in physicochemical features, neurotoxicity, and infectivity between the two isoforms. Such a study will greatly improve our understanding of the infectious proteinaceous pathogens. The physiology and pathophysiology of iPrPC are unclear at present. Notably, in a newly-identified human prion disease termed variably protease-sensitive prionopathy, we found a new PrPSc that shares the immunoreactive behavior and fragmentation with iPrPC 11, 12. Moreover, we recently demonstrated that iPrPC is the main species that interacts with amyloid-β protein in Alzheimer disease13. In the same study, these methods were used to isolate Abeta aggregates and oligomers in Alzheimer''s disease13, suggesting their application to non-prion protein aggregates involved in other neurodegenerative disorders.  相似文献   

20.
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