Exploring the zoonotic potential of animal prion diseases |
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Authors: | Marcelo A Barria James W Ironside Mark W Head |
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Affiliation: | 1. National CJD Research &2. Surveillance Unit;3. Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences;4. School of Clinical Sciences;5. University of Edinburgh;6. Edinburgh, UK |
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Abstract: | Following the discovery of a causal link between bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle and variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans, several experimental approaches have been used to try to assess the potential risk of transmission of other animal transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) to humans. Experimental challenge of non-human primates, humanised transgenic mice and cell-free conversion systems have all been used as models to explore the susceptibility of humans to animal TSEs. In this review we compare and contrast in vivo and in vitro evidence of the zoonotic risk to humans from sheep, cattle and deer prions, focusing primarily on chronic wasting disease and our own recent studies using protein misfolding cyclic amplification. |
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Keywords: | Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease chronic wasting disease protein misfolding cyclic amplification transmissible spongiform encephalopathies |
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