Thermostability as a highly dependent prion strain feature

Prion diseases are caused by the conversion of physiological PrP(C) into the pathogenic misfolded protein PrP(Sc), conferring new properties to PrP(Sc) that vary upon prion strains. In this work, we analyze the thermostability of three prion strains (BSE, RML and 22L) that were heated at 98 °C for 2 hours. PrP(Sc) resistance to proteinase K (PrP(res)), residual infectivity by mouse bioassay and in vitro templating activity by protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) were studied. Heated strains showed a huge loss of PrP(res) and a radically different infectivity loss: RML was the most thermolabile strain (6 to 7 log10 infectivity loss), followed by 22L (5 log10) while BSE was the most thermostable strain with low or null infectivity reduction showing a clear dissociation between PrP(res) and infectivity. These results indicate that thermostability is a strain-specific feature, measurable by PMCA and mouse bioassay, and a great tool to distinguish prion strains.