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Medical Molecular Biology Commons

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Medical Microbiology

2012

Theses and Dissertations--Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics

Prions; Cellular Permissiveness; Cellular PrPC; Protease Resistant PrPSc; Transcriptional Differences

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Full-Text Articles in Medical Molecular Biology

Prion Characterization Using Cell Based Approaches, Vadim Khaychuk Jan 2012

Prion Characterization Using Cell Based Approaches, Vadim Khaychuk

Theses and Dissertations--Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics

Prions are the causative agents of a group of lethal, neurodegenerative conditions that include sheep scrapie, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), and human Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Prions are derived from the conversion of a normal, primarily alpha-helical, cellular prion protein (PrPC), to an infectious, beta sheet-rich conformer (PrPSc). Many unresolved issues surround the process of PrP conversion, and we know very little about cellular responses to these unique pathogens. Our lack of knowledge relates, in part, to the difficulty of infecting cells in vitro with prions. While expression of PrPC is an absolute requirement for prion …