INRA scientists have shown for the first time that the pathogens responsible for scrapie in small ruminants (prions) have the potential to convert the human prion protein from a healthy state to a pathological state.
In mice models reproducing the human species barrier, this prion induces a disease similar to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. These primary results published in Nature Communications on 16 December 2014, stress the necessity to reassess the transmission of this disease to humans.
Scrapie is a neurodegenerative disease that has been known for centuries and which affects sheep and goats. Similar to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease, scrapie is caused by a transmissible pathogen protein called prion.
However, and contrary to BSE1, epidemiological studies have never been able to establish a link between this disease and the occurrence of prion diseases in humans. “Risks of transmitting scrapie to humans (zoonose) were hitherto considered negligible because of the species barrier that naturally prevents prion propagation between species”, said Olivier Andreoletti, INRA scientist who led the present study.
Researchers at INRA studied the permeability of the human transmission barrier to pathogens responsible for scrapie, using animal models specifically developed for this purpose. This approach previously allowed the confirmation of the zoonotic nature of prions responsible for BSE in cows and of the variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans (vCJD).
Unexpectedly, in these rodent models, certain pathogens responsible for scrapie were able to cross the transmission barrier. Moreover, the pathogens that propagated through this barrier were indistinguishable from the prions causing the sporadic form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD). This data suggest a potential link between the occurrence of certain sCJD and these animal prions.
“Since CJD is scarce, about 1 case per million and per year, and incubation periods are usually long -several decades- it is extremely difficult for epidemiological studies to try and make this link”, explains Olivier Andreoletti.
Read more: Scrapie could breach the species barrier
The Latest on: Scrapie
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Scrapie” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Scrapie
- John Trevor Stampon March 18, 2024 at 2:43 am
Notable was his scientific work, with colleagues, on ovine pneumonia, nematode infection, septicaemia of growing lambs, and scrapie of sheep. Some of this work on scrapie with colleagues at the then ...
- Opinion: inspections protocol is an important breakthroughon March 16, 2024 at 2:54 pm
That's why I am convinced the protocol for inspections that has been agreed between Wexford IFA and Wexford County Council inspections is so important. I’ve found covering that issue has triggered the ...
- Valais Blacknose Sheep are Cute, Friendly and Expensiveon March 16, 2024 at 3:00 am
Shorn in April and October, Valais Blacknose sheep produce a course, carpet-grade wool favored by fiber artists because it doesn’t contain a lot of lanolin, felts easily, washes white and clean, and ...
via Bing News