The Prion Disease Database: a comprehensive transcriptome resource for systems biology research in prion diseases

Prion diseases reflect conformational conversion of benign isoforms of prion protein (PrP(C)) to malignant PrP(Sc) isoforms. Networks perturbed by PrP(Sc) accumulation and their ties to pathological events are poorly understood. Time-course transcriptomic and phenotypic data in animal models are critical for understanding prion-perturbed networks in systems biology studies. Here, we present the Prion Disease Database (PDDB), the most comprehensive data resource on mouse prion diseases to date. The PDDB contains: (i) time-course mRNA measurements spanning the interval from prion inoculation through appearance of clinical signs in eight mouse strain-prion strain combinations and (ii) histoblots showing temporal PrP(Sc) accumulation patterns in brains from each mouse–prion combination. To facilitate prion research, the PDDB also provides a suite of analytical tools for reconstructing dynamic networks via integration of temporal mRNA and interaction data and for analyzing these networks to generate hypotheses. Database URL: http://prion.systemsbiology.net