Manganese enhances prion protein survival in model soils and increases prion infectivity to cells.

Prion diseases are considered to be transmissible. The existence of sporadic forms of prion diseases such as scrapie implies an environmental source for the infectious agent. This would suggest that under certain conditions the prion protein, the accepted agent of transmission, can survive in the en...

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Main Authors: Paul Davies, David R Brown
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2009-10-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2760146?pdf=render
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author Paul Davies
David R Brown
author_facet Paul Davies
David R Brown
author_sort Paul Davies
collection DOAJ
description Prion diseases are considered to be transmissible. The existence of sporadic forms of prion diseases such as scrapie implies an environmental source for the infectious agent. This would suggest that under certain conditions the prion protein, the accepted agent of transmission, can survive in the environment. We have developed a novel technique to extract the prion protein from soil matrices. Previous studies have suggested that environmental manganese is a possible risk factor for prion diseases. We have shown that exposure to manganese is a soil matrix causes a dramatic increase in prion protein survival (approximately 10 fold) over a two year period. We have also shown that manganese increases infectivity of mouse passaged scrapie to culture cells by 2 logs. These results clearly verify that manganese is a risk factor for both the survival of the infectious agent in the environment and its transmissibility.
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spelling doaj.art-6b55cc0fef3f481ea5fdbff936bd25822022-12-22T00:59:38ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032009-10-01410e751810.1371/journal.pone.0007518Manganese enhances prion protein survival in model soils and increases prion infectivity to cells.Paul DaviesDavid R BrownPrion diseases are considered to be transmissible. The existence of sporadic forms of prion diseases such as scrapie implies an environmental source for the infectious agent. This would suggest that under certain conditions the prion protein, the accepted agent of transmission, can survive in the environment. We have developed a novel technique to extract the prion protein from soil matrices. Previous studies have suggested that environmental manganese is a possible risk factor for prion diseases. We have shown that exposure to manganese is a soil matrix causes a dramatic increase in prion protein survival (approximately 10 fold) over a two year period. We have also shown that manganese increases infectivity of mouse passaged scrapie to culture cells by 2 logs. These results clearly verify that manganese is a risk factor for both the survival of the infectious agent in the environment and its transmissibility.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2760146?pdf=render
spellingShingle Paul Davies
David R Brown
Manganese enhances prion protein survival in model soils and increases prion infectivity to cells.
PLoS ONE
title Manganese enhances prion protein survival in model soils and increases prion infectivity to cells.
title_full Manganese enhances prion protein survival in model soils and increases prion infectivity to cells.
title_fullStr Manganese enhances prion protein survival in model soils and increases prion infectivity to cells.
title_full_unstemmed Manganese enhances prion protein survival in model soils and increases prion infectivity to cells.
title_short Manganese enhances prion protein survival in model soils and increases prion infectivity to cells.
title_sort manganese enhances prion protein survival in model soils and increases prion infectivity to cells
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2760146?pdf=render
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AT davidrbrown manganeseenhancesprionproteinsurvivalinmodelsoilsandincreasesprioninfectivitytocells