Shedding, retention and spreading of chronic wasting disease prions in the environment

首席调查员/项目主任(最后、第一、中间)：莫拉莱斯、罗德里戈 摘要 慢性消耗性疾病(CWD)是一种感染几种宫颈的普恩病毒疾病。在过去的几年里 多年来，CWD因其在野生动物和圈养动物中的高发病率而臭名昭著。据推测， 在不久的将来，受这种疾病困扰的动物数量将会增加。重要的是，鹿分享了它们的 与包括人类在内的其他几个物种共同栖息。慢性萎缩性脑病病毒感染其他动物的可能性 物种仍然存在争议。被认为是导致CWD疫情的主要事件涉及到积累 环境成分中具有传染性的普恩病毒。已有研究表明，普里恩能有效地结合土壤颗粒 同时保持它们的感染性。从尿液、粪便和唾液中清除病毒 受感染的动物可能重要地参与了传染性向环境的传播。我们有 最近的研究表明，朊病毒能以极高的效率结合活的植物。被普恩病毒污染的叶子或根会受到感染 潜伏期相对较短的实验对象。有趣的是，我们还展示了植物 可以从土壤中吸收普恩，并将其输送到空中部分。初步数据显示，其他天然和 人造表面也可以以特定于材料的方式结合和释放普恩病毒。重要的是，普里恩 绑定到几种材料上只能通过接触才能促进疾病。最后，我们证明了蚯蚓可以 作为Pron传染性的有效传播者，要么将Prion附着在其表面，要么通过摄取和 进一步排泄受污染的土壤颗粒。在这个项目中，我们计划进一步评估绑定属性 Prion对土壤、植物和蚯蚓的影响。这将通过使用各种技术来实现。 (放射性标记、qPMCA和生物测定)。同时，从CWD受影响楼宇抽取的样本将会 分析过了。我们坚信，从这些实验中获得的数据将有助于我们理解 自然CWD的传播机制并有助于设计新的法规和指南来根除CWD 来自环境的代理。

Principal Investigator/Program Director (Last, first, middle): Morales, Rodrigo ABSTRACT Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a prion disease affecting several species of cervids. During the last years, CWD has acquired notoriety due to its high incidence on wild and captive animals. It is speculated that the number of animals afflicted by this disease will increase in the near future. Importantly, deer share their habitats with several other species, including humans. The potential of CWD prions to infect other animal species is still controversial. The leading event thought to cause the CWD epidemic involves the accumulation of infectious prions in environmental components. Prions have been shown to efficiently bind soil particles while maintaining their infectious properties. The elimination of prions from urine, feces and saliva from infected animals could be importantly participating in the spread of infectivity to the environment. We have recently shown that prions can bind living plants with great efficiency. Prion-contaminated leaves or roots infect experimental subjects with relatively short incubation periods. Interestingly, we have also shown that plants can uptake prions from soil and transport them to aerial parts. Preliminary data show that other natural and human-made surfaces can also bind and release prions in a material-specific manner. Importantly, prions bound to several materials can promote disease only by contact. Finally we have shown that earthworms can act as efficient disseminators of prion infectivity, either by attaching prions to their surfaces or by ingestion and further excretion of contaminated soil particles. In this project, we plan to further assess the binding properties of prions to soil, plants and earthworms. This will be achieved by using a wide variety of techniques (radiolabeling, qPMCA and bioassays). In parallel, samples obtained from CWD affected premises will be analyzed. We strongly believe that data obtained from these experiments will help us to understand the mechanisms of natural CWD spread and help to design new regulations and guidelines to eradicate the CWD agent from the environment.