1. Environmental and host factors that contribute to prion strain evolution
- Author
-
Jason C. Bartz
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,PrPSc Proteins ,Prions ,animal diseases ,Population ,Prion strain ,Host factors ,Environment ,Biology ,Article ,Prion Diseases ,Pathology and Forensic Medicine ,03 medical and health sciences ,Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience ,0302 clinical medicine ,Animals ,Humans ,PrPC Proteins ,education ,Peptide sequence ,Genetics ,education.field_of_study ,Strain (chemistry) ,Transmission (medicine) ,Host (biology) ,Biological Evolution ,Phenotype ,nervous system diseases ,030104 developmental biology ,Neurology (clinical) ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
Prions are novel pathogens that are composed entirely of PrP(Sc), the self-templating conformation of the host prion protein, PrP(C). Prion strains are operationally defined as a heritable phenotype of disease that are encoded by strain-specific conformations of PrP(Sc). The factors that influence the relative distribution of strains in a population are only beginning to be understood. For prions with an infectious etiology, environmental factors, such as strain-specific binding to surfaces and resistance to weathering, can influence which strains are available for transmission to a naïve host. Strain-specific differences in efficiency of infection by natural routes of infection can also select for prion strains. The host amino acid sequence of PrP(C) has the greatest effect on dictating the repertoire of prion strains. The relative abundance of PrP(C), post-translational modifications of PrP(C) and cellular co-factors involved in prion conversion can also provide conditions that favor the prevalence of a subset of prion strains. Additionally, prion strains can interfere with each other, influencing the emergence of a dominant strain. Overall, both environmental and host factors may influence the repertoire and distribution of strains within a population.
- Published
- 2021