Protected endogenous retroviral sequences copurify with infectivity in experimental Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Summary

Scrapie and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) are caused by infectious agents that are defined phenomenologically. No agent-specific molecules or particles have been identified. Biological properties, such as exponential agent replication and strain variation, as well as physical characteristics of infectivity indicate a protected viral structure. A host membrane glycoprotein of 34 kDa (“prion” protein) that aggregates at end stages of disease is clearly important in pathology and susceptibility to infection, but has no demonstrable infectivity in any purified or recombinant form. Thus a characterization of more viral-like molecules is important. In order to identify viral-like nucleic acids we previously developed methods to substantially purify the human CJD agent from experimentally infected hamster brains, and demonstrated selected retro-viral-like LTR bands at pg levels that were insufficient for sequencing. To further define these and other viral-like sequences we cloned nucleic acids from highly infectious CJD fractions, and tested the efficacy of our methods using a selected retroviral probe. RNA extracted from an infectious 120 S Gaussian peak, which is reproducibly purified ∼ 100,000 fold with respect to starting nucleic acids, and contains ∼ 20% of the initial brain infectivity, was used to generate a cDNA library in a sequence independent amplification strategy for low levels of RNA (<6 ng). Reconstituted strong stop experiments using several retroviral tRNA primers had indicated that Syrian hamster IAP (SHIAP) sequences should be present in both CJD and uninfected control fractions. Because SHIAP particles are extremely resistant to denaturation, their representation in a cDNA library would imply adequate extraction of other protected RNAs of viral origin. At least 900 bases of the Syrian hamster retroviral IAP genome were unambiguously identified in the cDNA library, and in independent PCR walks with selected primers, all of which were based on our cloned sequences. Sequencing confirmed the presence of protected LTR and adjacent retroviral motifs. Because these sequences were also present in control preparations they may represent normal endogenous viral contaminants that cosediment with infectivity in size and density gradients. On the other hand, LTRs can drive the expression of many diverse sequences, and it remains to be seen if CJD specific sequences are either transduced, or copackaged with, protected IAP complexes. The effective extraction and amplification of highly protected SHIAP nucleic acids of significant length sets the stage for identifying additional protected viral elements that may specify the CJD agent.