BackgroundMicroglial activations have been described in different subtypes of human prion diseases such as sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), variant CJD, Kuru and Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease (GSS). However, the situation of microglia in other genetic prion diseases such as fatal familial insomnia (FFI) and familial CJD remains less understood. The brain microglia was evaluated comparatively between the FFI, G114V and sCJD cases in the study.MethodsSpecific Western blots, immunohistochemical and immunofluorescent assays were used to detect the changes of microglia and ELISA tests were used for levels of inflammatory cytokines.ResultsWestern blots, immunohistochemical and immunofluorescent assays illustrated almost unchanged microglia in the temporal lobes of FFI and G114V gCJD, but obviously increased in those of sCJD. The Iba1-levels maintained comparable in six different brain regions of FFI and G114V cases, including thalamus, cingulate gyrus, frontal cortex, parietal cortex, occipital cortex and temporal cortex. ELISA tests for inflammatory cytokines revealed significantly up-regulated IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α in the brain homogenates from sCJD, but not in those from FFI and G114V gCJD.ConclusionData here demonstrates silent brain microglia in FFI and G114V gCJD but obviously increased in sCJD, which reflects various pathogenesis of different human prion diseases subtypes.
In order to definitively diagnosis sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), brain tissue is currently required. Therefore, there is a great need for tests that can detect sCJD in body fluids or other types of tissues. Different variables, including the amount of recombinant celluar prion protein (rPrPC), salt, cleaning surfactants and thioflavin T (ThT), in human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were evaluated. The reagent concentrations of 1X PBS, 170 mM NaCl, 1 mM EDTA, 0.01 mM ThT and 0.001% SDS, and the amounts of 10 µg rPrPC and 10 µl CSF were considered to be optimal for the real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) assay. Using these conditions, the RT-QuIC assay for prion protein (PrPSc) detection was observed to be sensitive to 10−8 diluted brain homogenates of hamsters infected with the 263K scrapie strain. Furthermore, CSF samples from 70 probable sCJD cases and 48 non-CJD cases were preliminarily screened. A substantial proportion of sCJD samples (57.14%) tested positive by RT-QuIC, with a short lag phase (<50 h post-reaction) and high peak ThT values (>25,000 relative fluorescence units). By contrast, only a small number of non-CJD samples displayed weakly positive results, and these were detected at a later stage (>50 h post-reaction) and had much lower ThT values. In conclusion, the RT-QuIC assay in CSF samples reported in the present study may provide a useful pre-mortem tool for the diagnosis of sCJD, particularly in China where postmortem examination is rarely conducted.
Normal prion protein (PrP) contains two cysteines at amino acids 179 and 214, which may form intra‑ and interpeptide disulfide bonds. To determine the possible effects of this disulfide bridge on the biochemical features of PrP, prokaryotic recombinant human wild‑type PrP (PG5), and mutated PrPs with seven extra octarepeats (PG12) or with all five octarepeats removed (PG0), were subjected to redox in vitro. Sedimentation assays revealed a large portion of aggregation in redox‑treated PG5, but not in PG0 and PG12. Circular dichroism analysis detected increased β‑sheet and decreased α‑helix in PG5 subjected to redox, increased random‑coil and decreased β‑sheet in PG0, and increased random‑coil, but limited changes to β‑sheet content, in PG12. Thioflavin T fluorescence tests indicated that fluorescent value was increased in PG5 subjected to redox. In addition, proteinase K (PK) digestions indicated that PK resistance was stronger in PG12 and PG0 compared with in PG5; redox enhanced the PK resistance of all three PrP constructs, particularly PG0 and PG12. These data indicated that formation of a disulfide bond induces marked alterations in the secondary structure and biochemical characteristics of PrP. In addition, the octarepeat region within the PrP peptide markedly influences the effects of redox on the biochemical phenotypes of PrP, thus highlighting the importance of the number of octarepeats in the biological functions of PrP.
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