Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link Skip directly to A-Z link Skip directly to A-Z link
Volume 14, Number 9—September 2008
Research

Excretion of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Infectivity in Urine

Luisa Gregori, Gabor G. Kovacs, Irina Alexeeva, Herbert Budka, and Robert G. RohwerComments to Author 
Author affiliations: Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland, USA (L. Gregori, I. Alexeeva, R.G. Rohwer); University of Maryland, Baltimore (L. Gregori, R.G. Rohwer); Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria (G.G. Kovacs, H. Budka);

Main Article

Table 2

End-point dilution titration of urinary bladder and kidney from scrapie-infected hamsters

Dilution Total/no. infected
Bladder Kidney
10–1 19/19 4/4
10–1.3 8/8 20/20
10–1.7 8/8 8/8
10–2 4/4 8/8
10–3 4/4 4/3
10–4 4/2 4/1
10–5 4/1 4/0
10–6 4/0 4/0
Titer (log10 ID50/g)* 5.5 5.0
Standard error 0.5 0.4

*ID50, 50% infectious dose. Titers calculated by the Reed and Muench method (13); standard errors by the Pizzi method (14).

Main Article

References
  1. Gregori  L, McCombie  N, Palmer  D, Birch  P, Sowemimo-Coker  SO, Giulivi  A, Effectiveness of leucoreduction for removal of infectivity of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies from blood. Lancet. 2004;364:529–31. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  2. Gregori  L, Gurgel  PV, Lathrop  JT, Edwardson  P, Lambert  BC, Carbonell  RG, Reduction in infectivity of endogenous transmissible spongiform encephalopathies present in blood by adsorption to selective affinity resins. Lancet. 2006;368:2226–30. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  3. Hewitt  PE, Llewelyn  CA, Mackenzie  J, Will  RG. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and blood transfusion: results of the UK Transfusion Medicine Epidemiological Review study. Vox Sang. 2006;91:221–30. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  4. Health Protection Agency. A new case of variant CJD associated with blood transfusion [cited 2008 Jan 2]. Available from http://www.hpa.org.uk/hpa/news/articles/press_releases/2007/070118_vCJD.htm
  5. Matorras  R, Rodriguez-Escudero  FJ. Prions, urinary gonadotrophins and recombinant gonadotrophins. Hum Reprod. 2003;18:1129–30. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  6. Reichl  H, Balen  A, Jansen  CA. Prion transmission in blood and urine: what are the implications for recombinant and urinary-derived gonadotrophins? Hum Reprod. 2002;17:2501–8. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  7. Kuroda  Y, Gibbs  CJ Jr, Amyx  HL, Gajdusek  DC. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in mice: persistent viremia and preferential replication of virus in low-density lymphocytes. Infect Immun. 1983;41:154–61.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  8. Gajdusek  DC, Gibbs  CJ Jr, Alpers  M. Transmission and passage of experimenal "kuru" to chimpanzees. Science. 1967;155:212–4.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  9. Shaked  GM, Shaked  Y, Kariv-Inbal  Z, Halimi  M, Avraham  I, Gabizon  R. A protease-resistant prion protein isoform is present in urine of animals and humans affected with prion diseases. J Biol Chem. 2001;276:31479–82. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  10. Kariv-Inbal  Z, Ben-Hur  T, Grigoriadis  NC, Engelstein  R, Gabizon  R. Urine from scrapie-infected hamsters comprises low levels of prion infectivity. Neurodegener Dis. 2006;3:123–8. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  11. Seeger  H, Heikenwalder  M, Zeller  N, Kranich  J, Schwarz  P, Gaspert  A, Coincident scrapie infection and nephritis lead to urinary prion excretion. Science. 2005;310:324–6. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  12. Heikenwalder  M, Zeller  N, Seeger  H, Prinz  M, Klöhn  PC, Schwarz  P, Chronic lymphocytic inflammation specifies the organ tropism of prions. Science. 2005;307:1107–10. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  13. Reed  LJ, Muench  H. A simple method of estimating fifty per cent endpoints. Am J Hyg. 1938;27:493–7.
  14. Pizzi  M. Sampling variation of the fifty percent end-point, determined by the Reed-Muench (Behrens) method. Hum Biol. 1950;22:151–90.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  15. Spearman  C. The method of “right and wrong cases” (“constant stimuli”) without Gauss’s formulae. Br J Psychol. 1908;2:227–42.
  16. Elliott  EJ, MacAuley  C, Robins  D, Rohwer  RG. Working safely with transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. In: Richmond JY, Editor. Anthology of biosafety, vol. 7. Mundelein (IL): American Biological Safety Association; 2005.
  17. Mathiason  CK, Powers  JG, Dahmes  SJ, Osborn  DA, Miller  KV, Warren  RJ, Infectious prions in the saliva and blood of deer with chronic wasting disease. Science. 2006;314:133–6. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  18. Deleault  NR, Harris  BT, Rees  JR, Supattapone  S. Formation of native prions from minimal components in vitro. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007;104:9741–6. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  19. Hadlow  WJ, Race  RE, Kennedy  RC. Temporal distribution of transmissible mink encephalopathy virus in mink inoculated subcutaneously. J Virol. 1987;61:3235–40.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  20. Marsh  RF, Burger  D, Hanson  RP. Transmissible mink encephalopathy: behaviour of the agent in mink. J Infect Dis. 1969;120:713–9.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  21. Brown  P, Gibbs  CJ Jr, Rodgers-Johnson  P, Asher  DM, Sulima  MP, Bacote  A, Human spongiform encephalopathy: the National Institutes of Health series of 300 cases of experimentally transmitted disease. Ann Neurol. 1994;35:513–29. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  22. Sisó  S, González  L, Jeffrey  M, Martin  S, Chianini  F, Steele  P. Prion protein in kidneys of scrapie-infected sheep. Vet Rec. 2006;159:327–8.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  23. Ligios  C, Cancedda  GM, Margalith  I, Santucciu  C, Madau  L, Maestrale  C, Intraepithelial and interstitial deposition of pathological prion protein in kidneys of scrapie-affected sheep. PLoS One. 2007;2:e859. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  24. Hamir  AN, Kunkle  RA, Miller  J. M, Hall SM. Abnormal prion protein in ectopic lymphoid tissue in a kidney of an asymptomatic white-tailed deer experimentally inoculated with the agent of chronic wasting disease. Vet Pathol. 2006;43:367–9. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  25. Brown  P, Rohwer  RG, Dunstan  BC, MacAuley  C, Gajdusek  DC, Drohan  WN. The distribution of infectivity in blood components and plasma derivatives in experimental models of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. Transfusion. 1998;38:810–6. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  26. Head  MW, Kouverianou  E, Taylor  L, Green  A, Knight  R. Evaluation of urinary PrPSc as a diagnostic test for sporadic, variant, and familial CJD. Neurology. 2005;64:1794–6. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  27. Narang  HK, Dagdanova  A, Xie  Z, Yang  Q, Chen  SG. Sensitive detection of prion protein in human urine. Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2005;230:343–9.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  28. Krause  CH, Eastick  K, Ogilvie  MM. Real-time PCR for mumps diagnosis on clinical specimens—comparison with results of conventional methods of virus detection and nested PCR. J Clin Virol. 2006;37:184–9. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  29. Rota  PA, Khan  AS, Durigon  E, Yuran  T, Villamarzo  YS, Bellini  WJ. Detection of measles virus RNA in urine specimens from vaccine recipients. J Clin Microbiol. 1995;33:2485–8.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  30. Tonry  JH, Brown  CB, Cropp  CB, Co  JK, Bennett  SN, Nerurkar  VR, West Nile virus detection in urine. Emerg Infect Dis. 2005;11:1294–6.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  31. Georgsson  G, Sigurdarson  S, Brown  P. Infectious agent of sheep scrapie may persist in the environment for at least 16 years. J Gen Virol. 2006;87:3737–40. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  32. Johnson  CJ, Phillips  KE, Schramm  PT, McKenzie  D, Aiken  JM, Pedersen  JA. Prions adhere to soil minerals and remain infectious. PLoS Pathog. 2006;2:e32. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  33. Seidel  B, Thomzig  A, Buschmann  A, Groschup  MH, Peters  R, Beekes  M, Scrapie agent (strain 263K) can transmit disease via the oral route after persistence in soil over years. PLoS One. 2007;2:e435. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar

Main Article

Page created: July 13, 2010
Page updated: July 13, 2010
Page reviewed: July 13, 2010
The conclusions, findings, and opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors' affiliated institutions. Use of trade names is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by any of the groups named above.
file_external