Generation of a persistently infected MDBK cell line with natural bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)

PLoS One. 2015 Feb 3;10(2):e0115939. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0115939. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is a zoonotic transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) thought to be caused by the same prion strain as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). Unlike scrapie and chronic wasting disease there is no cell culture model allowing the replication of proteinase K resistant BSE (PrPBSE) and the further in vitro study of this disease. We have generated a cell line based on the Madin-Darby Bovine Kidney (MDBK) cell line over-expressing the bovine prion protein. After exposure to naturally BSE-infected bovine brain homogenate this cell line has shown to replicate and accumulate PrPBSE and maintain infection up to passage 83 after initial challenge. Collectively, we demonstrate, for the first time, that the BSE agent can infect cell lines over-expressing the bovine prion protein similar to other prion diseases. These BSE infected cells will provide a useful tool to facilitate the study of potential therapeutic agents and the diagnosis of BSE.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cattle
  • Cell Line
  • DNA, Recombinant / genetics
  • Encephalopathy, Bovine Spongiform / genetics*
  • Genetic Techniques*
  • Lentivirus / genetics
  • Prions / genetics
  • Transduction, Genetic

Substances

  • DNA, Recombinant
  • Prions

Grants and funding

This work was supported by a fund of the Veterinary Science Technical Development project of the Animal, Plant and Fisheries Quarantine and Inspection Agency (project no. M-AD16-2006-09-09). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.