Identification of central nervous system genes involved in the host response to the scrapie agent during preclinical and clinical infection.
Genes that are expressed differentially in the central nervous system of mice during infection with mouse-adapted scrapie agents were identified in this study. cDNA microarrays were used to examine gene-expression profiles at early, middle (preclinical) and late (clinical) time points after inoculation. A number of genes that showed significant changes in expression during the clinical stage of disease were identified. Of these, 138 were upregulated and 20 were downregulated. A smaller number of genes showed differential expression at the early and middle stages of the disease time course. These genes are interesting, as they may reflect biological processes that are involved in the molecular pathogenesis of the prion agent. At present, little is known about the early events in the disease process that trigger neurodegeneration. Perhaps most interestingly, one group of genes that exhibited decreased expression in all tested stages of the disease was identified in this study. This cluster included four transcripts representing haematopoietic system-related genes, which suggests that the haematopoietic system is involved in the disease process from an early stage.
Booth
Stephanie
S
Division of Host Genetics and Prion Diseases, National Microbiology Laboratory, Health Canada, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3E 3R2.
Bowman
Christopher
C
Institute for Biodiagnostics, National Research Council Canada, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3B 1Y6.
Baumgartner
Richard
R
Institute for Biodiagnostics, National Research Council Canada, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3B 1Y6.
Sorensen
Garrett
G
Division of Host Genetics and Prion Diseases, National Microbiology Laboratory, Health Canada, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3E 3R2.
Robertson
Catherine
C
Division of Host Genetics and Prion Diseases, National Microbiology Laboratory, Health Canada, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3E 3R2.
Coulthart
Michael
M
Division of Host Genetics and Prion Diseases, National Microbiology Laboratory, Health Canada, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3E 3R2.
Phillipson
Clark
C
Division of Host Genetics and Prion Diseases, National Microbiology Laboratory, Health Canada, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3E 3R2.
Somorjai
Rajmund L
RL
Institute for Biodiagnostics, National Research Council Canada, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3B 1Y6.
D000818:Animals; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D018450:Disease Progression; D015870:Gene Expression; D006413:Hematopoietic System; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D005810:Multigene Family; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D012608:Scrapie / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology