title: Clay Components in Soil Dictate Environmental Stability and Bioavailability of Cervid Prions in Mice.
abstract: Chronic wasting disease (CWD) affects cervids and is the only known prion disease to affect free-ranging wildlife populations. CWD spread continues unabated, and exact mechanisms of its seemingly facile spread among deer and elk across landscapes in North America remain elusive. Here we confirm that naturally contaminated soil contains infectious CWD prions that can be transmitted to susceptible model organisms. We show that smectite clay content of soil potentiates prion binding capacity of different soil types from CWD endemic and non-endemic areas, likely contributing to environmental stability of bound prions. The smectite clay montmorillonite (Mte) increased prion retention and bioavailabilityin vivo. Trafficking experiments in live animals fed bound and unbound prions showed that mice retained significantly more Mte-bound than unbound prions. Mte promoted rapid uptake of prions from the stomach to the intestines via enterocytes and M cells, and then to macrophages and eventually CD21+ B cells in Peyer's patches and spleens. These results confirm clay components in soil as an important vector in CWD transmission at both environmental and organismal levels.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Prion Research Center at Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO, USA.
authors.forename: A Christy
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Wyckoff
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Prion Research Center at Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kane
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Prion Research Center at Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Krista
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lockwood
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Prion Research Center at Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Seligman
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Prion Research Center at Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Brady
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Michel
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Prion Research Center at Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Dana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Prion Research Center at Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Aimee
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ortega
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Prion Research Center at Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Mihnea R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Mangalea
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Prion Research Center at Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Glenn C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Telling
authors.affiliation: Colorado Parks and Wildlife Fort Collins, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Michael W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: National Wildlife Research Center, Wildlife Services, United States Department of Agriculture Fort Collins, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Kurt
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vercauteren
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Prion Research Center at Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Mark D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Zabel
keywords: chronic wasting disease (CWD); clay; environment; montmorillonite; prion trafficking; prions; soil; transmission