Oral prion disease pathogenesis is impeded in the specific absence of CXCR5-expressing dendritic cells

After oral exposure the early replication of certain prion strains upon stromal-derived follicular dendritic cells (FDC) in the Peyer’s patches in the small intestine is essential for the efficient spread of disease to the brain. However, little is known of how prions are initially conveyed from the gut lumen to establish infection on FDC. Our previous data suggest that mononuclear phagocytes such as CD11c+ conventional dendritic cells play an important role in the initial propagation of prions from the gut lumen into Peyer’s patches. But whether these cells conveyed orally-acquired prions towards FDC within Peyer’s patches was not known. The chemokine CXCL13 is expressed by FDC and follicular stromal cells and modulates the homing of CXCR5-expressing cells towards the FDC-containing B cell follicles. Here, novel compound transgenic mice were created in which CXCR5-deficiency was specifically restricted to CD11c+ cells. These mice were used to determine whether CXCR5-expressing conventional dendritic cells propagate prions towards FDC after oral exposure. Our data show that in the specific absence of CXCR5-expressing conventional dendritic cells the early accumulation of prions upon FDC in Peyer’s patches and the spleen was impaired, and disease susceptibility significantly reduced. These data suggest that CXCR5-expressing conventional dendritic cells play an important role in the efficient propagation of orally-administered prions towards FDC within Peyer’s patches in order to establish host infection.