Summary
Much progress has been made in understanding the molecular basis of phenotypic variability in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in the last ten years. The most significant advance was the discovery that the genotype at polymorphic codon 129 of PRNP and the “type” of the protease-resistant prion protein fragment, PrP-res, have a major influence on the disease phenotype in all forms of CJD, irrespective of their etiology. The most widely accepted CJD classification includes six clinico-pathological phenotypes and two major types of PrP-res, types 1 and 2, which can be distinguished on the basis of a ∼2 kDa difference in relative molecular mass of the protein fragment. However, alternative classifications of human PrP-res types distinguished three patterns of PrP-res molecular mass instead of two, thereby creating significant confusion in the field. Fortunately, progress has been recently made in clarifying these disparities. Most significant in this regard, has been the finding that pH variation among CJD brain homogenates in standard buffers influences the size of PrP-res. Thus, some of the PrP-res heterogeneity used to identify putative strain-specific PrP-res types simply represents a technical “artefact” related to the experimental conditions. On the other hand, recent data have also shown that PrP-res types 1 and 2 are heterogeneous biological species, which can be further distinguished into molecular subtypes that fit the current histopathological classification of sporadic CJD in 6 subtypes. Finally, novel truncated PrP-res fragments of smaller size than PrP-res types 1 and 2 have recently been identified in CJD. Although more studies are needed to fully characterize the presence, characteristics and biological significance of these peptides, preliminary results indicate that their search and characterization may be useful in the molecular diagnostics of CJD subtypes.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Prusiner SB (1998) Prions. PNAS USA, 95:13363–13383.
Parchi P. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and Fatal Familial Insomnia (2000) In: The Neurodegenerative Dementia. Eds: Clark C and Trojanowski JQ. Mc Graw Hill 2000, Chapter 26, pp 341–365.
Bruce ME, McConnell I, Fraser H, Dickinson AG (1991) The disease characteristics of different strains of scrapie in Sinc congenic mouse lines: implications for the nature of the agent and host control of pathogenesis. J Gen Virol 72: 595–603.
Kascsak RJ, Rubenstein R, Merz PA, et al. (1986) Immunological comparison of scrapie-associated fibrils isolated from animals infected with four different scrapie strains. J Virol 59: 676–683.
Bessen RA, Marsh RF (1994) Distinct PrP properties suggest the molecular basis of strain variation in transmissible mink encephalopathy. J Virol 68:7859–7868.
Brown P, Coker-Vann M, Pomeroy K, et al. (1986) Diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease by Western blot identification of marker protein in human brain tissue. N. Engl. J. Med. 314: 547–51.
Roberts GW, Lofthouse R, Brown R, Crow TJ, Barry RA, Prusiner SB (1986) Prion protein immunoreactivity in human transmissible dementias. N. Engl. J. Med. 3150: 1231–3.
Monari L, Chen SG, Brown P, Parchi P, et al. (1994) Fatal Familial Insomnia and familial Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: Different prion proteins determined by a DNA polymorphism. PNAS, USA, 91:2839–2842.
Parchi P, Castellani R, Capellari S, et al. (1995) Protease-resistant prion protein in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: correlation with clinicopathological features PrP genotype. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 1995; 54: 416.
Parchi P, Castellani R, Capellari S, et al (1996) Molecular basis of phenotypic variability in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Ann Neurol 39:767–778.
Parchi P, Giese A, Capellari S, et al (1999) Classification of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease based on molecular and phenotypic analysis of 300 subjects. Ann Neurol 46: 224–233.
Parchi P, Capellari S, Chen SG, et al. (1996) Similar posttranslational modifications of the prion protein in familial, sporadic and iatrogenic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Soc Neurosci Abstr 711.
Parchi P, Capellari S, Chen SG, et al. (1997) Typing prion isoforms. Nature 386: 232–233.
Collinge J, Sidle KCL, Meads J, Ironside J, Hill AF (1996) Molecular analysis of prion strain variation and the aetiology of ‘new variant’ CJD. Nature 383: 685–690.
Parchi P, Castellani R, Cortelli P, et al. (1995) Regional Distribution of Protease-Resistant Prion Protein in Fatal Familial Insomnia. Ann Neurol 38: 21–29.
Capellari S, Parchi P, Stanford J, Russo C, Gambetti P, Petersen R.P. Effect of the E200K mutation on prion protein: comparative study of a cell model and human brain. Am J Pathol 157:613–622.
Petersen RB, Parchi P, Richardson SL, Urig CB, Gambetti P (1996) Effect of the D178N mutation and the codon 129 polymorphism on the metabolism of the prion protein. J Biol Chem 271: 12661–12668.
Zanusso, G., Farinazzo, A., Fiorini, M., et al. (2001) pH-dependent prion protein conformation in classical Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. J Biol Chem 276: 40377–40380
Hill AF, Joiner S, Wadsworth JDF, et al (2003) Molecular classification of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Brain 126:1333–1346.
Wadsworth, J.D.F., Hill, A.F., Joiner, S., Jackson, G.S., Clarke, A.R., Collinge, J. (1999) Strain-specific prion protein conformation determined by metal ions. Nat Cell Biol 1: 55–59.
Parchi P, Zou W, Wang W, et al. (2000) Genetic influence on the structural variations of the abnormal prion protein. PNAS U S A, 97: 10168–10172.
Zanusso G, Farinazzo A, Prelli F, et al (2004) Identification of distinct N-terminal truncated forms of prion protein in different Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease subtypes. J Biol Chem 279:38936–38942.
Notari S, Capellari S, Giese A, et al (2004) Effects of different experimental conditions on the prpSc core generated by protease digestion. J Biol Chem 279:16797–16804.
Parchi P, Brown P, Capellari P, Gibbs JW, Jr, Gambetti P (1999) Strain variation in human prion diseases: insight from transmission to primates. In: Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders: Etiology, Pathogenesis, and Therapeutics. Eds.: Iqbal K, Swaab DF, Winblad D, and Wisniewski HM. Wiley J & Sons, Ltd. pp 561–567.
Korth C, Kaneko K, Groth D, et al (2003) Abbreviated incubation times for human prions in mice expressing a chimeric mouse-human prion protein transgene. PNAS U S A, 100:4784–9.
Cardone F, Liu QG, Petraroli R (1999) Prion protein glycotype analysis in familial and sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease patients. Brain Res Bull 49:429–433.
Puoti G, Giaccone G, Rossi G, Canciani B, Bugiani O, Tagliavini F (1999) Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: co-occurrence of different types of PrP(Sc) in the same brain. Neurology. 53:2173–6
Van Everbroeck B, Pals P, Dziedzic T, et al (2000) Retrospective study of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Belgium: Neuropathological findings. Acta Neuropathol 99:358–364.
Hauw JJ, Sazdovitch V, Laplanche JL, et al (2000) Neuropathologic variants of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and codon 129 of PrP gene. Neurology 54:1641–1646.
Kovacs GG, Head MW, Bunn T, Laszlo L, Will RG, Ironside JW (2000) Clinicopathological phenotype of codon 129 valine homozygote sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Neuropathol Appl Neurobiol 26:463–472.
Rossetti AO, Glatzel M, Aguzzi A, Janzer R, Bogousslavsky J (2003) Clinical and radiological mimicry of vCJD in a valine homozygous PrPSc type 1 sCJD patient. J Neurol 250:491–493.
Fukushima R, Shiga Y, Nakamura M, Fujimori J, Kitamoto T, Yoshida Y (2004) MRI characteristics of sporadic CJD with valine homozygosity at codon 129 of the prion protein gene and PrPSc type 2 in Japan. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 75:485–487.
Zerr I, Schulz-Schaeffer WJ, Giese A, et al (2000) Current clinical diagnosis in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: Identification of uncommon variants. Ann Neurol 48:323–329.
Meissner B, Kohler K, Kortner K, et al (2004) Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease — Magnetic resonance imaging and clinical findings. Neurology 63:450–456.
Head MW, Bunn TJR, Bishop MT, et al (2004) Prion protein heterogeneity in sporadic but not variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease: U.K. cases 1991–2002. Ann Neurol 55:851–859.
Pocchiari M, Puopolo M, Croes EA, et al (2004) Predictors of survival in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and other human transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. Brain 127:2348–2359.
Hamaguchi T, Kitamoto T, Sato T, et al (2005) Clinical diagnosis of MM2-type sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Neurology 64:643–648.
Kobayashi A, Satoh S, Ironside JW, Mohri S, Kitamoto T (2005) Type 1 and type 2 human PrPSc have different aggregation sizes in methionine homozygotes with sporadic, iatrogenic and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. J Gen Virol 86:237–240.
Tagliavini F, Prelli F, Ghiso J, et al (1991) Amyloid protein of Gertsmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease (Indiana kindred) is an 11kd fragment of prion protein with an N-terminal glycine at codon 58. EMBO J 10: 513–519.
Parchi P, Chen SG, Brown P, et al. (1998) Different patterns of truncated prion protein fragments correlate with distinct phenotypes in P102L Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease. PNAS USA 95: 8322–8327.
Piccardo P, Dlouhy SR, Lievens PM et al (1998) Phenotypic variability of Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease is associated with prion protein heterogeneity. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 57:979–88
Kocisko DA, Lansbury PT Jr, Caughey B (1996) Partial unfolding and refolding of scrapie-associated prion protein: evidence for a critical 16-kDa C-terminal domain. Biochemistry. 35:13434–42
Caughey B, Raymond GJ, Bessen RA (1998) Strain-dependent differences in beta-sheet conformations of abnormal prion protein. J Biol Chem. 273:32230–5
Zou WQ, Capellari S, Parchi P, Sy MS, Gambetti P, and Chen SG (2003) Identification of novel proteinase K-resistant C-terminal fragments of PrP in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. J Biol Chem 278:40429–40436.
Satoh K, Muramoto T, Tanaka T, et al (2003) Association of an 11–12 kDa protease-resistant prion protein fragment with subtypes of dura graft-associated Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and other prion diseases. J Gen Virol 84:2885–2893.
Pan T, Li R, Kang SC, et al (2005) Biochemical fingertips of prion diseases: scrapie prion protein in human prion diseases that share prion genotype and type. J Neurochem 92:132–142.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2005 Springer-Verlag Tokyo
About this paper
Cite this paper
Parchi, P., Notari, S., Strammiello, R., Capellari, S. (2005). History and state of the art of PrP-res “typing” in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. In: Kitamoto, T. (eds) Prions. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/4-431-29402-3_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/4-431-29402-3_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Tokyo
Print ISBN: 978-4-431-25539-0
Online ISBN: 978-4-431-29402-3
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)