title: Decipher the mechanisms of rabbit's low susceptibility to prion infection.
abstract: Rabbits have low susceptibility to prion infection. Studies on prion protein (PrP) from animal species of different susceptibility to prion diseases identified key amino acid residues, specific motif, and special features in rabbit prion protein (RaPrP(C)) that contribute to the stability of rabbit PrP(C) and low susceptibility to prion infection. However, there is no evidence showing that rabbits are completely resistant to prion diseases. It has been reported that the rabbit prion could be generated in vitro through protein misfolding cyclic amplification and proved to be infectious and transmissible. Here, we reviewed studies on rabbit-specific PrP structures and features in relation to rabbit's low susceptibility to prion infection.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratories for Agrobiotechnology, Key Lab of Animal Epidemiology and Zoonosis, Ministry of Agriculture, National Animal Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Deming
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Lifeng
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000682:Amyloid / Q000737:chemistry; D000818:Animals; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D018621:PrPC Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D017096:Prion Diseases / Q000276:immunology*; D011489:Protein Denaturation; D011817:Rabbits
chemical_list: D000682:Amyloid; D018621:PrPC Proteins
keywords: prion diseases; prion protein; rabbit; resistance; susceptibility