Evidence for a Cysteine Proteinase Involved in BSE Infection and/or Progression Viral nucleic acid sequences and proteinases are potentially involved in bovine spongiform encephalopathy disease infection and/or progression

摘要

According to the "protein-only" hypothesis, the prion protein seemed to be - for more than a decade - the infectious agent of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) in different species [1]. TSEs are neurodegenera-tive diseases reported e.g., for humans CCreutzfeld-Jakob disease, CJD), cattle (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE), and sheep (scrapie). In contrast to the "protein-only" hypothesis, some researchers published data showing that retrovirus-like RNA transcripts [2], a viral structure [3], and viral particles [4] might be involved in disease infection/progression of CJD In addition, there is no final proof for the "protein-only" hypothesis and the infectivity of the prion protein Recent research has questioned the "protein-only" hypothesis again and proposes intracellu-lar 25-nm virus-like particles as the causal TSE virions that induce late-stage prion protein brain pathology [5].