Affiliation:
1. CEA, Italian Reference Laboratory for TSE, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d'Aosta, Turin, Italy
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The olfactory system (OS) is involved in many infectious and neurodegenerative diseases, both human and animal, and it has recently been investigated in regard to transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. Previous assessments of nasal mucosa infection by prions following intracerebral challenge suggested a potential centrifugal spread along the olfactory nerve fibers of the pathological prion protein (PrP
Sc
). Whether the nasal cavity may be a route for centripetal prion infection to the brain has also been experimentally studied. With the present study, we wanted to determine whether prion deposition in the OS occurs also under field conditions and what type of anatomical localization PrP
Sc
might display there. We report here on detection by different techniques of PrP
Sc
in the nasal mucosa and in the OS-related brain areas of sheep affected by natural scrapie. PrP
Sc
was detected in the perineurium of the olfactory nerve bundles in the medial nasal concha and in nasal-associated lymphoid tissue. Olfactory receptor neurons did not show PrP
Sc
immunostaining. PrP
Sc
deposition was found in the brain areas of olfactory fiber projection, chiefly in the olfactory bulb and the olfactory cortex. The prevalent PrP
Sc
deposition patterns were subependymal, perivascular, and submeningeal. This finding, together with the discovery of an intense PrP
Sc
immunostaining in the meningeal layer of the olfactory nerve perineurium, at the border with the subdural space extension surrounding the nerve rootlets, strongly suggests a probable role of cerebrospinal fluid in conveying prion infectivity to the nasal submucosa.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Virology,Insect Science,Immunology,Microbiology
Cited by
20 articles.
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