Key result
Scrapie-infected brain vesicles show no protein composition differences versus uninfected controls, ruling out a proteolipid.
The study indicates that any hydrophobic protein associated with the scrapie agent is not a proteolipid.
No proteolipid differences in scrapie vesicles; leaves open hydrophobic protein identity and requires validation beyond animal models.
Previous studies have shown that the scrapie agent is highly membrane-associated. We examined the protein composition of gradient fractions enriched for large membrane vesicles prepared from scrapie-infected and uninfected hamster brain using various methods to extract membrane proteins. We also examined proteins in detergent-extracted membrane vesicles fractionated on CsCl gradients. No qualitative differences in protein composition were seen comparing scrapie-infected and uninfected samples by one-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Extraction of proteins from membrane vesicles by phenol, pyridine, perchloric acid or lithium diiodosalicylate also failed to reveal any unique proteins in scrapie-infected hamster brain. Attempts to solubilize hydrophobic proteins (proteolipids) from CsCl gradient fractions into organic solvents were unsuccessful. These findings indicate that any hydrophobic protein associated with the scrapie agent is not a proteolipid, and that the ability of solvents to reduce scrapie infectivity is not a result of extraction of a proteolipid.
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Dees et al. (1985) studied Scrapie infection. Scrapie infection vs. Uninfected hamster brain was evaluated on Protein composition of membrane vesicles. No qualitative differences in protein composition were seen comparing scrapie-infected and uninfected hamster brain membrane vesicles, indicating any associated hydrophobic protein is not a proteolipid.
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