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Accelerated Prion Disease in the Absence of Interleukin-10

Centre for Veterinary Science, Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge,¹ Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom,² Institute of Virology and Immunobiology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany³

Received 18 May 2004/ Accepted 21 July 2004

The identity of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in the neuropathogenesis of prion diseases remains undefined. Here we have investigated the role of anti-inflammatory cytokines on the progression of prion disease through the use of mice that lack interleukin-4 (IL-4), IL-10, IL-13, or both IL-4 and IL-13. Collectively our data show that among these anti-inflammatory cytokines, IL-10 plays a prominent role in the regulation of prion disease. Mice deficient in IL-10 are highly susceptible to the development of prion disease and show a markedly shortened incubation time. In addition, we have correlated cytokine gene expression in prion-inoculated IL-10^–/– mice to wild-type-inoculated animals. Our experiments show that in the absence of IL-10 there is an early expression of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-). In wild-type prion-inoculated mice, the expression of TNF- mRNA occurs at a later time point that correlates with the extended incubation time for terminal disease development in these animals compared to those that lack IL-10. Elevated levels of IL-13 mRNA are found at early time points in the central nervous system of prion-inoculated IL-10^–/– mice. At terminal disease, the brains of wild-type mice inoculated with RML or ME7 are characterized by elevated levels of mRNA for the proinflammatory cytokines TNF- and IL-1ß, together with the anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-10, IL-13, and transforming growth factor beta. Our data are consistent with a role for proinflammatory cytokines in the initiation of pathology during prion disease and an attempt by anti-inflammatory cytokines to regulate the ensuing, invariably fatal pathology.

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