Establishment of a cell line persistently infected with chronic wasting disease prions.

Elk prion protein (PrP(C)) has been confirmed to be capable of rendering rabbit epithelial RK13 cells permissive to temporal infection by chronic wasting disease (CWD) prions. The present study satisfactorily generated persistently CWD prion-affected RK13 cells (RKC1-11) using elk PrP(C) expressing cells (elkRK13) that were generated via the lentiviral expression system with high efficiency. The elkRK13 cells have been shown to be permissive to accumulation of abnormal isoforms of prion protein (PrP(Sc)) resulting from CWD prions up to 97 serial passages thus far. This novel prion-affected cell line will help facilitate investigation of the molecular basis of CWD prion pathogenesis and confirmation of CWD prion infectivity in vitro.