In vitro neutralization of prions with PrPsc-specific antibodies

Abstract

Prion diseases reflect the misfolding of a self-protein (PrPC) into an infectious, pathological isomer (PrPSc). By targeting epitopes uniquely exposed by misfolding, our groupdeveloped PrPSc-specific vaccines to 3 disease specific epitopes (DSEs). Here, antibodies induced by individual DSE vaccines are evaluated for their capacity to neutralize prions in vitro. For both purified antibodies and immunoreactive sera, the PrPSc-specific antibodies were equally effective in neutralizing prions. Further, there was no significant increase in neutralizing activity when multiple DSEs were targeted within an assay. At a low antibody concentration, the PrPSc-specific antibodies matched the neutralization achieved by an antibody that may act via both PrPC and PrPSc. At higher doses, however, this pan-specific antibody was more effective, potentially due to a combined deactivation of PrPSc and depletion of PrPC.