Excretion of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Infectivity in Urine

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Emerg Infect Dis
• Personal Author:
  Gregori, Luisa ; Kovacs, Gabor G. ; Alexeeva, Irina ; Budka, Herbert ; Rohwer, Robert G.
• Description:
  The route of transmission of most naturally acquired transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) infections remains speculative. To investigate urine as a potential source of TSE exposure, we used a sensitive method for detection and quantitation of TSE infectivity. Pooled urine collected from 22 hamsters showing clinical signs of 263K scrapie contained 3.8 +/- 0.9 infectious doses/mL of infectivity. Titration of homogenates of kidneys and urinary bladders from the same animals gave concentrations 20,000-fold greater. Histologic and immunohistochemical examination of these same tissues showed no indications of inflammatory or other pathologic changes except for occasional deposits of disease-associated prion protein in kidneys. Although the source of TSE infectivity in urine remains unresolved, these results establish that TSE infectivity is excreted in urine and may thereby play a role in the horizontal transmission of natural TSEs. The results also indicate potential risk for TSE transmission from human urine-derived hormones and other medicines.
• Subjects:
  Animals Bladder Cricetinae Endogenous Infectivity Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay Hamster Kidney Limiting Dilution Titration Mesocricetus Pathology Prion Prion Diseases PrPSc Proteins Research Scrapie TSE Urinary Bladder Urine

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• Source:
  Emerg Infect Dis. 14(9):1406-1412
• Pubmed ID:
  18760007
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC2603099
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  N01-NS-0-2327/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/United States
• Volume:
  14
• Issue:
  9
• Collection(s):
  Emerging Infectious Diseases
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:e6e1cbdee6cda12b21326ee2d5895881939448565d1468d9129b87828b8c85db
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/17239/cdc_17239_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 318.59 KB ]