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Isolation of infectious, non-fibrillar and oligomeric prions from a genetic prion disease.

ABSTRACT: Prions are transmissible agents causing lethal neurodegenerative diseases that are composed of aggregates of misfolded cellular prion protein (PrPSc). Despite non-fibrillar oligomers having been proposed as the most infectious prion particles, prions purified from diseased brains usually consist of large and fibrillar PrPSc aggregates, whose protease-resistant core (PrPres) encompasses the whole C-terminus of PrP. In contrast, PrPSc from Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease associated with alanine to valine substitution at position 117 (GSS-A117V) is characterized by a small protease-resistant core, which is devoid of the C-terminus. We thus aimed to investigate the role of this unusual PrPSc in terms of infectivity, strain characteristics, and structural features. We found, by titration in bank voles, that the infectivity of GSS-A117V is extremely high (109.3 ID50 U/g) and is resistant to treatment with proteinase K (109.0 ID50 U/g). We then purified the proteinase K-resistant GSS-A117V prions and determined the amount of infectivity and PrPres in the different fractions, alongside the morphological characteristics of purified PrPres aggregates by electron microscopy. Purified pellet fractions from GSS-A117V contained the expected N- and C-terminally cleaved 7 kDa PrPres, although the yield of PrPres was low. We found that this low yield depended on the low density/small size of GSS-A117V PrPres, as it was mainly retained in the last supernatant fraction. All fractions were highly infectious, thus confirming the infectious nature of the 7 kDa PrPres, with infectivity levels that directly correlated with the PrPres amount detected. Finally, electron microscopy analysis of these fractions showed no presence of amyloid fibrils, but only very small and indistinct, non-fibrillar PrPresparticles were detected and confirmed to contain PrP via immunogold labelling. Our study demonstrates that purified aggregates of 7 kDa PrPres, spanning residues ∼90-150, are highly infectious oligomers that encode the biochemical and biological strain features of the original sample. Overall, the autocatalytic behaviour of the prion oligomers reveals their role in the propagation of neurodegeneration in patients with Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease and implies that the C-terminus of PrPSc is dispensable for infectivity and strain features for this prion strain, uncovering the central PrP domain as the minimal molecular component able to encode infectious prions. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that non-fibrillar prion particles are highly efficient propagators of disease and provide new molecular and morphological constraints on the structure of infectious prions.

SUBMITTER: Vanni I

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7241950 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundReactive microglia are associated with ?-amyloid (A?) deposit and clearance in Alzhiemer's Disease (AD). Paradoxically, entocranial resident microglia fail to trigger an effective phagocytic response to clear A? deposits although they mainly exist in an "activated" state. Oligomeric A? (oA?), a recent target in the pathogenesis of AD, can induce more potent neurotoxicity when compared with fibrillar A? (fA?). However, the role of the different A? forms in microglial phagocytosis, induction of inflammation and oxidation, and subsequent regulation of phagocytic receptor system, remain unclear.ResultsWe demonstrated that A?(1-42) fibrils, not A?(1-42) oligomers, increased the microglial phagocytosis. Intriguingly, the pretreatment of microglia with oA?(1-42) not only attenuated fA?(1-42)-triggered classical phagocytic response to fluorescent microspheres but also significantly inhibited phagocytosis of fluorescent labeled fA?(1-42). Compared with the fA?(1-42) treatment, the oA?(1-42) treatment resulted in a rapid and transient increase in interleukin 1? (IL-1?) level and produced higher levels of tumor necrosis factor-? (TNF-?), nitric oxide (NO), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and intracellular superoxide anion (SOA). The further results demonstrated that microglial phagocytosis was negatively correlated with inflammatory mediators in this process and that the capacity of phagocytosis in fA?(1-42)-induced microglia was decreased by IL-1?, lippolysaccharide (LPS) and tert-butyl hydroperoxide (t-BHP). The decreased phagocytosis could be relieved by pyrrolidone dithiocarbamate (PDTC), a nuclear factor-?B (NF-?B) inhibitor, and N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), a free radical scavenger. These results suggest that the oA?-impaired phagocytosis is mediated through inflammation and oxidative stress-mediated mechanism in microglial cells. Furthermore, oA?(1-42) stimulation reduced the mRNA expression of CD36, integrin ?1 (Itgb1), and Ig receptor Fc?RIII, and significantly increased that of formyl peptide receptor 2 (FPR2) and scavenger receptor class B1 (SRB1), compared with the basal level. Interestingly, the pre-stimulation with oA?(1-42) or the inflammatory and oxidative milieu (IL-1?, LPS or t-BHP) significantly downregulated the fA?(1-42)-induced mRNA over-expression of CD36, CD47 and Itgb1 receptors in microglial cells.ConclusionThese results imply that A? oligomers induce a potent inflammatory response and subsequently disturb microglial phagocytosis and clearance of A? fibrils, thereby contributing to an initial neurodegenerative characteristic of AD. Antiinflammatory and antioxidative therapies may indeed prove beneficial to delay the progression of AD.

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Isolation of infectious, non-fibrillar and oligomeric prions from a genetic prion disease.

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