This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Corona, C.
Right arrow Articles by Casalone, C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Corona, C.
Right arrow Articles by Casalone, C.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Virology, April 2009, p. 3657-3667, Vol. 83, No. 8
0022-538X/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.01966-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Olfactory System Involvement in Natural Scrapie Disease {triangledown}

Cristiano Corona, Chiara Porcario, Francesca Martucci, Barbara Iulini, Barbara Manea, Marina Gallo, Claudia Palmitessa, Cristiana Maurella, Maria Mazza, Marzia Pezzolato, Pierluigi Acutis, and Cristina Casalone*

CEA, Italian Reference Laboratory for TSE, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d'Aosta, Turin, Italy

Received 18 September 2008/ Accepted 14 January 2009

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 (PrPSc). 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 PrPSc might display there. We report here on detection by different techniques of PrPSc in the nasal mucosa and in the OS-related brain areas of sheep affected by natural scrapie. PrPSc 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 PrPSc immunostaining. PrPSc deposition was found in the brain areas of olfactory fiber projection, chiefly in the olfactory bulb and the olfactory cortex. The prevalent PrPSc deposition patterns were subependymal, perivascular, and submeningeal. This finding, together with the discovery of an intense PrPSc 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.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: CEA-IZS Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d'Aosta, Via Bologna, 148 Turin 10154, Italy. Phone: 39 (0)11 2686296 Fax: 39 (0)11 2686322. E-mail: cea.neuropatologia.ufficio{at}izsto.it

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 21 January 2009.

Journal of Virology, April 2009, p. 3657-3667, Vol. 83, No. 8
0022-538X/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.01966-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»