Historical Background
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are neurodegenerative diseases characterized by neuron loss, glial reactions, and tissue spongiosis, which course with motor and/or cognitive symptoms. The TSEs are associated with conformational conversion of the prion protein (PrPC, the product of the Prnp gene), wherein the predominantly α-helical secondary structure of PrPC changes into an aggregation-prone, β-sheet-rich structure known as PrPSc. The latter is believed to coerce PrPC molecules into conformational conversion, thus behaving as a proteinaceous infectious particle, or prion, which gave TSEs the epithet prion diseases (Colby and Prusiner 2011).
The much needed development of effective treatment for these still incurable diseases depends on the understanding of functional properties of the prion protein. Most studies of physiological functions of PrPChave been...
References
Beckman D, Linden R. A roadmap for investigating the role of the prion protein in depression associated with neurodegenerative disease. Prion. 2016;10(2):131–42.
Beraldo FH, Soares IN, Goncalves DF, Fan J, Thomas AA, Santos TG, et al. Stress-inducible phosphoprotein 1 has unique cochaperone activity during development and regulates cellular response to ischemia via the prion protein. FASEB J. 2013;27(9):3594–607.
Bremer J, Baumann F, Tiberi C, Wessig C, Fischer H, Schwarz P, et al. Axonal prion protein is required for peripheral myelin maintenance. Nat Neurosci. 2010;13(3):310–8.
Caetano FA, Beraldo FH, Hajj GN, Guimaraes AL, Jurgensen S, Wasilewska-Sampaio AP, et al. Amyloid-beta oligomers increase the localization of prion protein at the cell surface. J Neurochem. 2011;117(3):538–53.
Colby DW, Prusiner SB. Prions. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 2011;3(1):a006833.
Isaacs JD, Jackson GS, Altmann DM. The role of the cellular prion protein in the immune system. Clin Exp Immunol. 2006;146(1):1–8.
Linden R, Martins VR, Prado MAM, Cammarota M, Izquierdo I, Brentani RR. Physiology of the prion protein. Physiol Rev. 2008;88(2):673–728.
Linden R, Cordeiro Y, Lima LM. Allosteric function and dysfunction of the prion protein. Cell Mol Life Sci. 2012;69(7):1105–24.
Martins VR, Beraldo FH, Hajj GN, Lopes MH, Lee KS, Prado MM, et al. Prion protein: orchestrating neurotrophic activities. Curr Issues Mol Biol. 2010;12(2):63–86.
Mehrpour M, Codogno P. Prion protein: from physiology to cancer biology. Cancer Lett. 2010;290(1):1–23.
Nitta K, Sakudo A, Masuyama J, Xue G, Sugiura K, Onodera T. Role of cellular prion proteins in the function of macrophages and dendritic cells. Protein Pept Lett. 2009;16(3):239–46.
Nuvolone M, Hermann M, Sorce S, Russo G, Tiberi C, Schwarz P, et al. Strictly co-isogenic C57BL/6J-Prnp−/− mice: a rigorous resource for prion science. J Exp Med. 2016;213(3):313–27.
Prado MAM, Alves-Silva J, Magalhaes AC, Prado VF, Linden R, Martins VR, et al. PrPc on the road: trafficking of the cellular prion protein. J Neurochem. 2004;88(4):769–81.
Rutishauser D, Mertz KD, Moos R, Brunner E, Rulicke T, Calella AM, et al. The comprehensive native interactome of a fully functional tagged prion protein. PLoS One. 2009;4(2):e4446.
Steinacker P, Hawlik A, Lehnert S, Jahn O, Meier S, Gorz E, et al. Neuroprotective function of cellular prion protein in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Am J Pathol. 2010;176(3):1409–20.
Stella R, Massimino ML, Sandri M, Sorgato MC, Bertoli A. Cellular prion protein promotes regeneration of adult muscle tissue. Mol Cell Biol. 2010;30(20):4864–76.
Um JW, Strittmatter SM. Amyloid-beta induced signaling by cellular prion protein and Fyn kinase in Alzheimer disease. Prion. 2013;7(1):37–41.
Um JW, Kaufman AC, Kostylev M, Heiss JK, Stagi M, Takahashi H, et al. Metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 is a coreceptor for Alzheimer abeta oligomer bound to cellular prion protein. Neuron. 2013;79(5):887–902.
Weissmann C, Fischer M, Raeber A, Bueler H, Sailer A, Shmerling D, et al. The use of transgenic mice in the investigation of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. Rev Sci Tech. 1998;17(1):278–90.
Wuthrich K, Riek R. Three-dimensional structures of prion proteins. Adv Protein Chem. 2001;57:55–82.
Acknowledgments
The authors’ research groups have been supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), Programa Institutos Nacionais de Ciência e Tecnologia (CNPq/MCT), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Weston Brain Institute, Brain Canada, The Alzheimer’s Association (USA), The Alzheimer’s Society (Canada), and PrioNet-Canada. V.R.M. is an International Scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media LLC
About this entry
Cite this entry
Linden, R., Martins, V.R., Prado, M.A.M. (2016). Prion (PRNP). In: Choi, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6438-9_390-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6438-9_390-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6438-9
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences