To: BSE-L@uni-karlsruhe.de
######## Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy #########
1: Exp Mol Pathol. 2004 Aug;77(1):49-56.
Linking chronic wasting disease to scrapie by comparison of Spiroplasma
mirum ribosomal DNA sequences.
Bastian FO, Dash S, Garry RF.
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Tulane University
Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA.
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) are fatal
neurodegenerative diseases of man and animals and are transmitted by a
filterable pathogen whose identity is currently unresolved. Our data
indicates that Spiroplasma, a wall-less bacterium, is involved in the
pathogenesis of TSE. We searched for Spiroplasma ribosomal gene
sequences in 10 scrapie-infected sheep brains and 10 normal sheep
brains, 7 cervid samples infected with chronic wasting disease (CWD),
and 7 normal cervid brains. DNA was extracted from these tissue samples
and amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using primers specific
for Spiroplasma-specific 16S rDNA. Specificity of the amplicon was
determined by Southern blotting and DNA sequence analyses. Spiroplasma
16S rDNA was found in 8 of 10 scrapie-infected sheep brains and 6 of 7
CWD-infected tissue samples. All normal animal brain samples were
negative. Spiroplasma 16S rDNA was also found in two human
Creutzfeldt-Jakob diseased (CJD) brains but not in two age-matched
normal human brains. DNA sequence analyses of the amplified PCR products
from human and animal TSE cases revealed greater than 99% nucleotide
sequence homology with Spiroplasma mirum. The presence of Spiroplasma
DNA in TSE-infected tissues supports our hypothesis that Spiroplasma may
be involved in the pathogenesis of these diseases.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15215050
TSS
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REPLY BSE-L
######## Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy #########
>Linking chronic wasting disease to scrapie by comparison of Spiroplasma
>mirum ribosomal DNA sequences.
This is interesting, because Spiroplasma mirum can apparently be
transmitted by ticks.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=264421
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TSS
