Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Prion. 2022 Dec;16(1):40-57. doi: 10.1080/19336896.2022.2079888.
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a contagious and fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy affecting species of the cervidae family. CWD has an expanding geographic range and complex, poorly understood transmission mechanics. CWD is disproportionately prevalent in wild male mule deer and male white-tailed deer. Sex and species influences on CWD prevalence have been hypothesized to be related to animal behaviours that involve deer facial and body exocrine glands. Understanding CWD transmission potential requires a foundational knowledge of the cellular prion protein (PrP) in glands associated with cervid behaviours. In this study, we characterized the presence and distribution of PrP in six integumentary and two non-integumentary tissues of hunter-harvested mule deer () and white-tailed deer (). We report that white-tailed deer expressed significantly more PrP than their mule deer in the parotid, metatarsal, and interdigital glands. Females expressed more PrP than males in the forehead and preorbital glands. The distribution of PrP within the integumentary exocrine glands of the face and legs were localized to glandular cells, hair follicles, epidermis, and immune cell infiltrates. All tissues examined expressed sufficient quantities of PrP to serve as possible sites of prion initial infection, propagation, and shedding.
慢性消耗性疾病（CWD）是一种传染性和致命的可传播海绵状脑病，影响鹿科动物的物种。CWD 的地理范围不断扩大，其传播机制复杂且了解甚少。CWD 在野生雄性骡鹿和雄性白尾鹿中更为普遍。性别和物种对 CWD 流行率的影响，据推测与涉及鹿面部和身体外分泌腺的动物行为有关。要了解 CWD 的传播潜力，就需要对与鹿行为相关的腺体中的细胞朊病毒蛋白（PrP）有基本的了解。在这项研究中，我们描述了 hunter-harvested 骡鹿（）和白尾鹿（）的六种皮肤和两种非皮肤组织中 PrP 的存在和分布。我们报告说，与骡鹿相比，白尾鹿的腮腺、跖骨和趾间腺中表达的 PrP 明显更多。女性在额前和眶前腺中的表达量多于男性。面部和腿部皮肤外分泌腺中的 PrP 分布定位于腺细胞、毛囊、表皮和免疫细胞浸润。所有检查的组织都表达了足够数量的 PrP，可作为朊病毒初始感染、增殖和脱落的潜在部位。
