Transcriptomic Responses to Prion Disease in Rats. Rattus norvegicus

While prion infections have been extensively characterized in the laboratory mouse, little is known regarding the molecular responses to prions in other rodents. To explore these responses and make comparisons, we generated a prion disease in the laboratory rat by successive passage of mouse RML prions. Here we describe the accumulation of prions and associated pathology in the rat and describe the transcriptional impact throughout prion disease. Comparative transcriptional profiling between laboratory mice and rats suggests that similar molecular processes are unfolding in response to prion infection. At the level of individual transcripts, however, variability exists between mice and rats and many genes deregulated in mouse scrapie are not affected in rats. Notwithstanding these differences, many transcriptome responses are conserved between mice and rats infected with scrapie. Our findings highlight the usefulness of comparative approaches to understanding neurodegeneration and prion diseases in particular. Overall design: We Adapted RML Mouse Scrapie into Rats and measured the resulting gene expression changes in brain as a result of disease progression. Rats were infected by intracranial inoculation with prion isolates obtained by adaptation of mouse RML scrapie prions into rats. Brain samples were collected from third and fourth passage infected rats and age-matched controls at specified timepoints and gene expression profiles obtained. For each time point, 3 diseased and control brain samples were profiled.