Transcriptomic Responses to Prion Disease in Rats

While prion infections have been extensively characterized in the laboratory mouse, little is known regarding the molecular responses to prions in other rodents. To explore these responses and make comparisons, we generated a prion disease in the laboratory rat by successive passage of mouse RML prions. Here we describe the accumulation of prions and associated pathology in the rat and describe the transcriptional impact throughout prion disease. Comparative transcriptional profiling between laboratory mice and rats suggests that similar molecular processes are unfolding in response to prion infection. At the level of individual transcripts, however, variability exists between mice and rats and many genes deregulated in mouse scrapie are not affected in rats. Notwithstanding these differences, many transcriptome responses are conserved between mice and rats infected with scrapie. Our findings highlight the usefulness of comparative approaches to understanding neurodegeneration and prion diseases in particular.

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Herbst A, Ness A, Johnson CJ, McKenzie D, Aiken JM