Prion seeding activity and infectivity in skin samples from patients with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Christina D Orrú, Jue Yuan, Brian S Appleby, Baiya Li, Yu Li, Dane Winner, Zerui Wang, Yi-An Zhan, Mark Rodgers, Jason Rarick, Robert E Wyza, Tripti Joshi, Gong-Xian Wang, Mark L Cohen, Shulin Zhang, Bradley R Groveman, Robert B Petersen, James W Ironside, Miguel E Quiñones-Mateu, Jiri G SafarQingzhong Kong, Byron Caughey, Wen-Quan Zou

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Abstract / Description of output

Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), the most common human prion disease, is transmissible through iatrogenic routes due to abundant infectious prions [misfolded forms of the prion protein (PrPSc)] in the central nervous system (CNS). Some epidemiological studies have associated sCJD risk with non-CNS surgeries. We explored the potential prion seeding activity and infectivity of skin from sCJD patients. Autopsy or biopsy skin samples from 38 patients [21 sCJD, 2 variant CJD (vCJD), and 15 non-CJD] were analyzed by Western blotting and real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) for PrPSc Skin samples from two patients were further examined for prion infectivity by bioassay using two lines of humanized transgenic mice. Western blotting revealed dermal PrPSc in one of five deceased sCJD patients and one of two vCJD patients. However, the more sensitive RT-QuIC assay detected prion seeding activity in skin from all 23 CJD decedents but not in skin from any non-CJD control individuals (with other neurological conditions or other diseases) during blinded testing. Although sCJD patient skin contained ~103- to 105-fold lower prion seeding activity than did sCJD patient brain tissue, all 12 mice from two transgenic mouse lines inoculated with sCJD skin homogenates from two sCJD patients succumbed to prion disease within 564 days after inoculation. Our study demonstrates that the skin of sCJD patients contains both prion seeding activity and infectivity, which raises concerns about the potential for iatrogenic sCJD transmission via skin.

Original languageEnglish
JournalScience Translational Medicine
Volume9
Issue number417
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 22 Nov 2017

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  • Journal Article

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