NR ALBJ
AU Souan,L.; Tal,Y.; Felling,Y.; Cohen,I.R.; Taraboulos,A.; Mor,F.
TI Modulation of proteinase-K resistant prion protein by prion peptide immunization
QU European Journal of Immunology 2001 Aug; 31(8): 2338-46
PT journal article
AB Prion diseases are caused by conformational alterations in the prion protein (PrP). The immune system has been assumed to be non-responsive to the self-prion protein, therefore, PrP autoimmunity has not been investigated. Here, we immunized various strains of mice with PrP peptides, some selected to fit the MHC class II-peptide binding motif. We found that specific PrP peptides elicited strong immune responses in NOD, C57BL/6 and A/J mice. To test the functional effect of this immunization, we examined the expression of proteinase-K-resistant PrP by a scrapie-infected tumor transplanted to immunized syngeneic A/J mice. PrP peptide vaccination did not affect the growth of the infected tumor transplant, but significantly reduced the level of protease-resistant PrP. Our results demonstrate that self-PrP peptides are immunogenic in mice and suggest that this immune response might affect PrP-scrapie levels in certain conditions.
MH Amino Acid Sequence; Animal; Antibody Specificity; Autoimmunity/immunology; Blotting, Western; Cell Division; Cells, Cultured; Endopeptidase K/*metabolism; Female; Histocompatibility Antigens Class II/immunology; Immunoglobulin G/biosynthesis/immunology; Lymphocyte Activation; Mice; Mice, Inbred A; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice, Inbred NOD; Molecular Sequence Data; Neoplasm Transplantation; Neuroblastoma/chemistry/metabolism/pathology; Peptides/chemistry/*immunology/*metabolism; PrPsc Proteins/chemistry/*immunology/*metabolism; Scrapie/*immunology/metabolism/therapy; T-Lymphocytes/cytology/immunology; Tumor Cells, Cultured; *Vaccination
AD Department of Immunology, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
SP englisch
PO Deutschland