Open AccessScrapie Infectivity and Proteinase K‐Resistant Prion Protein in Sheep Placenta, Brain, Spleen, and Lymph Node: Implications for Transmission and Antemortem Diagnosis
Author(s) -
Richard E. Race,
Allen L. Jenny,
Diane L. Sutton
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
the journal of infectious diseases (online. university of chicago press)/the journal of infectious diseases
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.69
H-Index - 252
eISSN - 1537-6613
pISSN - 0022-1899
DOI - 10.1086/515669
Subject(s) - scrapie , infectivity , bovine spongiform encephalopathy , virology , spleen , biology , proteinase k , placenta , transmission (telecommunications) , transmissible spongiform encephalopathy , pathology , immunology , virus , medicine , prion protein , disease , pregnancy , genetics , fetus , dna , electrical engineering , engineering
Probable transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy to humans has focused intense interest on all of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) and how they spread. In all TSEs, an abnormal disease-associated, proteinase K-resistant protein referred to as PrP-res or PrPsc accumulates in brain. In some species, PrP-res accumulates in other tissues as well. Sheep placenta, brain, spleen, and lymph node were analyzed in detail for PrP-res and infectivity. Both were detected in all brain and spleen samples and in placenta and lymph nodes of 80% of the scrapie-infected sheep. A perfect correlation was observed between infectivity and PrP-res detection. These results substantiate the probability that placenta plays an important role in natural transmission of scrapie, suggest that analysis of placenta for PrP-res could be the basis for an antemortem test for sheep scrapie, and show that PrP-res, scrapie infectivity, and scrapie disease are closely associated.