Goat K222-PrPC polymorphic variant does not provide resistance to atypical scrapie in transgenic mice

Patricia Aguilar-Calvo , Juan-Carlos Espinosa , Olivier Andréoletti , Lorenzo González , Leonor Orge , Ramón Juste , Juan-María Torres

AbstractHost prion (PrPC) genotype is a major determinant for the susceptibility to prion diseases. The Q/K222-PrPC polymorphic variant provides goats and mice with high resistance against classical scrapie and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE); yet its effect against atypical scrapie is unknown. Here, transgenic mice expressing the goat wild-type (wt) or the K222-PrPC variant were intracerebrally inoculated with several natural cases of atypical scrapie from sheep and goat and their susceptibility to the prion disease was determined. Goat wt and K222-PrPC transgenic mice were 100% susceptible to all the atypical scrapie isolates, showing similar survival times and almost identical disease phenotypes. The capacity of the K222-PrPC variant to replicate specifically the atypical scrapie strain as efficiently as the goat wt PrPC, but not the classical scrapie or cattle-BSE as previously reported, further suggests the involvement of concrete areas of the host PrPC in the strain-dependent replication of prions.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Patricia Aguilar-Calvo, Juan-Carlos Espinosa, Olivier Andréoletti, Lorenzo González, Leonor Orge, et al.. Goat K222-PrPC polymorphic variant does not provide resistance to atypical scrapie in transgenic mice. Veterinary Research, 2016, 47 (1), pp.96. ⟨10.1186/s13567-016-0380-7⟩. ⟨hal-01390820⟩