Prion diseases are fatal, transmissible neurodegenerative diseases including scrapie and chronic wasting disease. The infectious agent of prion diseases is the prion (PrPSc), an abnormally-folded isoform of a normal cellular protein (PrPc).  Prion attachment to soil is thought to play an important role in the transmission of scrapie and chronic wasting disease via environmental routes.  Binding of PrP to soil and soil minerals is influenced by prion strain and species and soil characteristics; however, the ability of soil-bound prions to replicate via conversion of PrPc to PrPSc remains poorly understood.  We evaluated replication efficiency of soil-bound prions using an in vitro technique. The replication efficiency of bound prions varied with soil type, where prions bound to clay and organic surfaces exhibited significantly lower replication efficiencies while prions bound to sand exhibited no apparent difference in replication efficiency compared to unbound controls.  There were limited differences in replication efficiency observed between prions from different host species. Given that prion adsorption also varies with soil type, the overall balance between prion adsorption affinity and replication efficiency for the dominant soil types in an area may be a significant determinant in the environmental transmission of prion diseases.

Replication efficiency of soil-bound prion protein varies with soil type

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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