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Synthetic Prion Selection and Adaptation

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Abstract

Prion pathologies are characterized by the conformational conversion of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) into a pathological infectious isoform, known as PrPSc. The latter acquires different abnormal conformations, which are associated with specific pathological phenotypes. Recent evidence suggests that prions adapt their conformation to changes in the context of replication. This phenomenon is known as either prion selection or adaptation, where distinct conformations of PrPSc with higher propensity to propagate in the new environment prevail over the others. Here, we show that a synthetically generated prion isolate, previously subjected to protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) and then injected in animals, is able to change its biochemical and biophysical properties according to the context of replication. In particular, in second transmission passage in vivo, two different prion isolates were found: one characterized by a predominance of the monoglycosylated band (PrPSc-M) and the other characterized by a predominance of the diglycosylated one (PrPSc-D). Neuropathological, biochemical, and biophysical assays confirmed that these PrPSc possess distinctive characteristics. Finally, PMCA analysis of PrPSc-M and PrPSc-D generated PrPSc (PrPSc-PMCA) whose biophysical properties were different from those of both inocula, suggesting that PMCA selectively amplified a third PrPSc isolate. Taken together, these results indicate that the context of replication plays a pivotal role in either prion selection or adaptation. By exploiting the ability of PMCA to mimic the process of prion replication in vitro, it might be possible to assess how changes in the replication environment influence the phenomenon of prion selection and adaptation.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Associazione Italiana Encefalopatie da Prioni (A.I.En.P.).

Funding

This work was supported/partially supported by the Italian Ministry of Health (GR-2013-02355724 and RC) to FM, the Italian Ministry of Health to FT, and the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) intramural funding to GL.

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Author notes

  1. Tommaso Virgilio

    Present address: Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Bellinzona, Switzerland

  2. Edoardo Bistaffa and Fabio Moda contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Prion Biology, Department of Neuroscience, Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA), Trieste, Italy

    Edoardo Bistaffa, Martina Rossi, Giulia Salzano & Giuseppe Legname

  2. Unit of Neuropathology and Neurology 5, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milan, Italy

    Edoardo Bistaffa, Fabio Moda, Tommaso Virgilio, Ilaria Campagnani, Chiara Maria Giulia De Luca, Giorgio Giaccone & Fabrizio Tagliavini

  3. ELETTRA Laboratory, Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A, Basovizza, Trieste, Italy

    Giuseppe Legname

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  1. Edoardo Bistaffa
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Contributions

EB, FM, and GL designed the experiments and EB, TV, IC, CMGDL, MR, and GS performed the practical work. TV and IC performed the animal inoculations. EB, FM, GG, FT, and GL wrote and revised the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Giuseppe Legname.

Ethics declarations

The study, including its Ethics aspects, was approved by the Italian Ministry of Health (Permit Number, NP-02-14).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Electronic Supplementary Material

ESM 1

Biochemical characterization of PrPSc in eyes and spleen of animals with PrPSc-M and PrPSc-D. (JPG 210 kb)

ESM 2

PMCA analysis of PrPSc-M and PrPSc-D spleen-derived PrPSc. (JPG 188 kb)

ESM 3

ThS staining of frontal cortex of mice with PrPSc-M and PrPSc-D. (JPG 352 kb)

ESM 4

PMCA amplification of serial dilutions of PrPSc-M and PrPSc-D. PrPSc-M and PrPSc-D were serially diluted in normal mouse brain homogenates and subjected to 2 serial rounds of amplification by means of PMCA. All amplified samples showed a PrPSc characterized by a prevalence of the diglycosylated isoform of the protein. (JPG 768 kb)

ESM 5

RT-QuIC assay of PrPSc-M and PrPSc-D isolates. (A) Representative kinetic curves of recombinant mouse PrP (recPrP) seeded with PrPSc-M and PrPSc-D and PrPSc-PMCA. (B) Analysis of the slope of PrPSc-M and PrPSc-D and PrPSc-PMCA aggregation kinetic curves. (* p<0.05, ** p<0.01) (C) Analysis of the slope of RML and RML-PMCA aggregation kinetic curves. (JPG 608 kb)

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Bistaffa, E., Moda, F., Virgilio, T. et al. Synthetic Prion Selection and Adaptation. Mol Neurobiol 56, 2978–2989 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12035-018-1279-2

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