A Copine family member, Cpne8, is a candidate quantitative trait gene for prion disease incubation time in mouse.

Prion disease incubation time in mice is determined by many factors including genetic background. The prion gene itself plays a major role in incubation time; however, other genes are also known to be important. Whilst quantitative trait loci (QTL) studies have identified multiple loci across the genome, these regions are often large, and with the exception of Hectd2 on Mmu19, no quantitative trait genes or nucleotides for prion disease incubation time have been demonstrated. In this study, we use the Northport heterogeneous stock of mice to reduce the size of a previously identified QTL on Mmu15 from approximately 25 to 1.2 cM. We further characterised the genes in this region and identify Cpne8, a member of the copine family, as the most promising candidate gene. We also show that Cpne8 mRNA is upregulated at the terminal stage of disease, supporting a role in prion disease. Applying these techniques to other loci will facilitate the identification of key pathways in prion disease pathogenesis.

HECTD2 is associated with susceptibility to mouse and human prion disease.

Prion diseases are fatal transmissible neurodegenerative disorders, which include Scrapie, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), and kuru. They are characterised by a prolonged clinically silent incubation period, variation in which is determined by many factors, including genetic background. We have used a heterogeneous stock of mice to identify Hectd2, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, as a quantitative trait gene for prion disease incubation time in mice. Further, we report an association between HECTD2 haplotypes and susceptibility to the acquired human prion diseases, vCJD and kuru. We report a genotype-associated differential expression of Hectd2 mRNA in mouse brains and human lymphocytes and a significant up-regulation of transcript in mice at the terminal stage of prion disease. Although the substrate of HECTD2 is unknown, these data highlight the importance of proteosome-directed protein degradation in neurodegeneration. This is the first demonstration of a mouse quantitative trait gene that also influences susceptibility to human prion diseases. Characterisation of such genes is key to understanding human risk and the molecular basis of incubation periods.

Investigation of mcp1 as a quantitative trait gene for prion disease incubation time in mouse.

The genetic basis of prion disease incubation time is principally determined by polymorphisms in the prion protein gene, Prnp. However, it is now known that other genetic factors are important. Several quantitative trait loci (QTL) have been identified across the genome including a broad region of linkage on Mmu11. Monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) maps to this region and has been associated with microglial activation and reduced survival in the ME7 mouse scrapie model of prion disease. We have identified 10 polymorphisms, 3 of which are nonsynonomous, in Mcp1 between "long" (CAST) and "short" (SJL or NZW) incubation-time mouse strains. Crosses between these strains and Mcp1(-/-) mice inoculated with the Chandler/RML mouse scrapie prion strain formed the basis of a quantitative complementation test. In these models loss of Mcp1 did not show an increase in incubation time suggesting that the effects of Mcp1 may be specific to the ME7 prion strain and that Mcp1 does not contribute to the QTL described on Mmu11.