Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in Cervids and the Consequences of a Mutable Protein Conformation.

ABSTRACT: Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a prion disease of cervids (deer, elk, moose, etc.). It spreads readily from CWD-contaminated environments and among wild cervids. As of 2022, North American CWD has been found in 29 states, four Canadian provinces and South Korea. The Scandinavian form of CWD originated independently. Prions propagate their pathology by inducing a natively expressed prion protein (PrP^C) to adopt the prion conformation (PrP^Sc). PrP^C and PrP^Sc differ solely in their conformation. Like other prion diseases, transmissible CWD prions can arise spontaneously. The CWD prions can respond to selection pressures resulting in the emergence of new strain phenotypes. Annually, 11.5 million Americans hunt and harvest nearly 6 million deer, ind

SUBMITTER: Silva CJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9022204 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature