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The infectivity of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy agent at low doses: the importance of phospholipid
Author(s) -
Gale P.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of applied microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.889
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1365-2672
pISSN - 1364-5072
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2672.2006.03110.x
Subject(s) - infectivity , transmissible spongiform encephalopathy , scrapie , phospholipid , bovine spongiform encephalopathy , thermostability , biology , incubation , prion protein , incubation period , host (biology) , mechanism of action , virology , chemistry , in vitro , disease , genetics , medicine , biochemistry , virus , membrane , enzyme
The issue of whether the mechanism of infection is independent or co‐operative for low doses of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) agent is critical for risk assessment. The susceptibility (and hence ID 50 ) of individuals with the same prion protein (PrP) genotype may vary considerably with a small proportion being very susceptible. Assuming independent action, the incubation period (IP) would continue to increase until the dose is below the ID 50 of the most susceptible individuals in the experiment, at which point it would become constant. This may explain the observed increase in IP with decreasing dose below the apparent ID 50 in experiments with untreated TSE agent. In contrast, IPs for autoclaved or NaOH‐treated TSE agent increase greatly at doses