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Red-backed vole brain promotes highly efficient in vitro amplification of abnormal prion protein from macaque and human brains infected with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease agent.

ABSTRACT: Rapid antemortem tests to detect individuals with transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) would contribute to public health. We investigated a technique known as protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) to amplify abnormal prion protein (PrP(TSE)) from highly diluted variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD)-infected human and macaque brain homogenates, seeking to improve the rapid detection of PrP(TSE) in tissues and blood. Macaque vCJD PrP(TSE) did not amplify using normal macaque brain homogenate as substrate (intraspecies PMCA). Next, we tested interspecies PMCA with normal brain homogenate of the southern red-backed vole (RBV), a close relative of the bank vole, seeded with macaque vCJD PrP(TSE). The RBV has a natural polymorphism at residue 170 of the PrP-encoding gene (N/N, S/S, and S/N). We investigated the effect of this polymorphism on amplification of human and macaque vCJD PrP(TSE). Meadow vole brain (170N/N PrP genotype) was also included in the panel of substrates tested. Both humans and macaques have the same 170S/S PrP genotype. Macaque PrP(TSE) was best amplified with RBV 170S/S brain, although 170N/N and 170S/N were also competent substrates, while meadow vole brain was a poor substrate. In contrast, human PrP(TSE) demonstrated a striking narrow selectivity for PMCA substrate and was successfully amplified only with RBV 170S/S brain. These observations suggest that macaque PrP(TSE) was more permissive than human PrP(TSE) in selecting the competent RBV substrate. RBV 170S/S brain was used to assess the sensitivity of PMCA with PrP(TSE) from brains of humans and macaques with vCJD. PrP(TSE) signals were reproducibly detected by Western blot in dilutions through 10?¹² of vCJD-infected 10% brain homogenates. This is the first report showing PrP(TSE) from vCJD-infected human and macaque brains efficiently amplified with RBV brain as the substrate. Based on our estimates, PMCA showed a sensitivity that might be sufficient to detect PrP(TSE) in vCJD-infected human and macaque blood.

SUBMITTER: Nemecek J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3813480 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Red-backed vole brain promotes highly efficient in vitro amplification of abnormal prion protein from macaque and human brains infected with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease agent.

Nemecek Julie J Nag Nabanita N Carlson Christina M CM Schneider Jay R JR Heisey Dennis M DM Johnson Christopher J CJ Asher David M DM Gregori Luisa L

PloS one 20131024 10

Rapid antemortem tests to detect individuals with transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) would contribute to public health. We investigated a technique known as protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) to amplify abnormal prion protein (PrP(TSE)) from highly diluted variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD)-infected human and macaque brain homogenates, seeking to improve the rapid detection of PrP(TSE) in tissues and blood. Macaque vCJD PrP(TSE) did not amplify using normal macaque ...[more]

PMID: 24205298

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Project description:ImportanceCreutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder associated with the accumulation of infectious abnormal prion protein through a mechanism of templated misfolding. A recent report has described the detection of abnormal prion protein in the urine of patients with variant CJD (vCJD) using protein misfolding by cyclic amplification, which was apparently absent in the more common sporadic form of CJD (sCJD). A noninvasive diagnostic test could improve early diagnosis of sCJD and, by screening donations, mitigate the potential risks of prion transmission through human urine-derived pharmaceuticals. Here, we describe the adaptation of the direct detection assay, developed originally as a blood test for vCJD, for the detection of disease-associated prion protein in urine samples from patients with sCJD.ObjectiveTo determine the feasibility of sCJD diagnosis by adaptation of an established vCJD diagnostic blood test to urine.Design, setting, and participantsThis retrospective, cross-sectional study included anonymized urine samples from healthy nonneurological control individuals (n = 91), patients with non-prion neurodegenerative diseases (n = 34), and patients with prion disease (n = 37) of which 20 had sCJD. Urine samples obtained during the Medical Research Council PRION-1 Trial, the National Prion Monitoring Cohort Study, and/or referred to the National Prion Clinic or Dementia Research Centre at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in the United Kingdom.Main outcomes and measuresPresence of sCJD infection determined by an assay that captures, enriches, and detects disease-associated prion protein isoforms.ResultsA total of 162 samples were analyzed, composed of 91 normal control individuals (51 male, 33 female, and 7 not recorded), 34 neurological disease control individuals (19 male and 15 female), and 37 with prion disease (22 male and 15 female). The assay's specificity for prion disease was 100% (95% CI, 97%-100%), with no false-positive reactions from 125 control individuals, including 34 from a range of neurodegenerative diseases. In contrast to a previous study, which used a different method, sensitivity to vCJD infection was low (7.7%; 95% CI, 0.2%-36%), with only 1 of 13 patients with positive test results, while sensitivity to sCJD was unexpectedly high at 40% (95% CI, 19%-64%).Conclusions and relevanceWe determined 40% of sCJD urine sample results as positive. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of an assay that can detect sCJD infection in urine or any target analyte outside of the central nervous system. Urine detection could allow the development of rapid, molecular diagnostics for sCJD and has implications for other neurodegenerative diseases where disease-related assemblies of misfolded proteins might also be present in urine.

Project description:Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are fatal neurodegenerative infections. Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) and sporadic CJD (sCJD) are human TSEs that, in rare cases, have been transmitted by human-derived therapeutic products. There is a need for a blood test to detect infected donors, identify infected individuals in families with TSEs and monitor progression of disease in patients, especially during clinical trials. We prepared panels of blood from cynomolgus and rhesus macaques experimentally infected with vCJD, as a surrogate for human blood, to support assay development. We detected abnormal prion protein (PrPTSE) in those blood samples using the protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) assay. PrPTSE first appeared in the blood of pre-symptomatic cynomolgus macaques as early as 2 months post-inoculation (mpi). In contrast, PMCA detected PrPTSE much later in the blood of two pre-symptomatic rhesus macaques, starting at 19 and 20 mpi, and in one rhesus macaque only when symptomatic, at 38 mpi. Once blood of either species of macaque became PMCA-positive, PrPTSE persisted through terminal illness at relatively constant concentrations. Infectivity in buffy coat samples from terminally ill cynomolgus macaques as well as a sample collected 9 months before clinical onset of disease in one of the macaques was assayed in vCJD-susceptible transgenic mice. The infectivity titres varied from 2.7 to 4.3 infectious doses ml-1. We also screened macaque blood using a four-member panel of biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases to identify potential non-PrPTSE pre-symptomatic diagnostic markers. Neurofilament light-chain protein (NfL) increased in blood before the onset of clinical vCJD. Cumulatively, these data confirmed that, while PrPTSE is the first marker to appear in blood of vCJD-infected cynomolgus and rhesus macaques, NfL might offer a useful, though less specific, marker for forthcoming neurodegeneration. These studies support the use of macaque blood panels to investigate PrPTSE and other biomarkers to predict onset of CJD in humans.

Dataset Information

Red-backed vole brain promotes highly efficient in vitro amplification of abnormal prion protein from macaque and human brains infected with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease agent.

Publications

Red-backed vole brain promotes highly efficient in vitro amplification of abnormal prion protein from macaque and human brains infected with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease agent.

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