title: Lack of prion transmission by sexual or parental routes in experimentally infected hamsters.
abstract: Prion diseases are a group of neurodegenerative disorders affecting humans as well as captive and wild animals. The mechanisms and routes governing the natural spread of prions are not completely understood and several hypotheses have been proposed. In this study, we analyzed the effect of gender in prion incubation period, as well as the possibility of prion transmission by sexual and parental contact using 263K infected hamsters as a model. Our results show that males have significantly longer incubation periods compared with females when exposed to the same quantity of infectious material. Importantly, no evidence of sexual or parental prion transmission was found, even 500 d after sexual contact or birth, respectively. Western blotting and PMCA were unable to detect sub-clinical levels of PrP(Sc) in experimental subjects, suggesting a complete absence of prion transmission by these routes. Our results show that sexual and parental transmission of prions does not occur in this model. It remains to be studied whether this conclusion is valid also for other prion strains and species.
authors.affiliation: Mitchell Center for Alzheimer's disease and Related Brain Disorders; Department of Neurology; University of Texas Houston Medical School; Houston, TX USA.
authors.forename: Rodrigo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Morales
authors.affiliation: Mitchell Center for Alzheimer's disease and Related Brain Disorders; Department of Neurology; University of Texas Houston Medical School; Houston, TX USA.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pritzkow
authors.affiliation: Mitchell Center for Alzheimer's disease and Related Brain Disorders; Department of Neurology; University of Texas Houston Medical School; Houston, TX USA; Education Ministry Key Laboratory on Luminescence and Real-Time Analysis; College of Life Sciences; Southwest University; Chongqing, PR China.
authors.forename: Ping Ping
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Mitchell Center for Alzheimer's disease and Related Brain Disorders; Department of Neurology; University of Texas Houston Medical School; Houston, TX USA; Universidad de los Andes; Facultad de Medicina; Las Condes, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Duran-Aniotz
authors.affiliation: Mitchell Center for Alzheimer's disease and Related Brain Disorders; Department of Neurology; University of Texas Houston Medical School; Houston, TX USA.
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Soto
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D006224:Cricetinae; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008647:Mesocricetus / Q000502:physiology*; D017096:Prion Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000635:transmission*; D011328:Prions / Q000378:metabolism*; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal
chemical_list: D011328:Prions
keywords: 263K; Syrian hamster; parental transmission; prion; protein misfolding cyclic amplification; sexual transmission