Unique Structural Features of Mule Deer Prion Protein Provide Insights into Chronic Wasting Disease.

ABSTRACT: Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a highly infectious prion disease of cervids. Accumulation of prions, the disease-specific structural conformers of the cellular prion protein (PrP^C), in the central nervous system, is the key pathological event of the disorder. The analysis of cervid PrP^C sequences revealed the existence of polymorphism at position 226, in which deer PrP contains glutamine (Q), whereas elk PrP contains glutamate (E). The effects of this polymorphism on CWD are still unknown. We determined the high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance structure of the mule deer prion protein that was compared to previously published PrP structures of elk and white-tailed deer. We found that the polymorphism Q226E could influence the long-range intramolecular interacti

SUBMITTER: Slapsak U 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6882122 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature