title: An enzymatic treatment of soil-bound prions effectively inhibits replication.
abstract: Chronic wasting disease (CWD) and scrapie can be transmitted through indirect environmental routes, possibly via soil, and a practical decontamination strategy for prion-contaminated soil is currently unavailable. In the laboratory, an enzymatic treatment under environmentally relevant conditions (22°C, pH 7.4) can degrade soil-bound PrPSc below the limits of Western blot detection. We developed and used a quantitative serial protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) protocol to characterize the amplification efficiency of treated soil samples relative to controls of known infectious titer. Our results suggest large (10(4)- to >10(6)-fold) decreases in soil-bound prion infectivity following enzyme treatment, demonstrating that a mild enzymatic treatment could effectively reduce the risk of prion disease transmission via soil or other environmental surfaces.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil Engineering, 203B Peter Kiewit Institute, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Omaha, NE 68182-0178, USA.
authors.forename: Samuel E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Saunders
authors.forename: Jason C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Bartz
authors.forename: Kurt C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Vercauteren
authors.forename: Shannon L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Bartelt-Hunt
mesh_terms: D004203:Disinfection / Q000379:methods*; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D011328:Prions / Q000378:metabolism*; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*; D020860:Subtilisin / Q000378:metabolism*; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D011328:Prions; D012987:Soil; D020860:Subtilisin