Brain microglia were activated in sporadic CJD but almost unchanged in fatal familial insomnia and G114V genetic CJD.

BACKGROUND: Microglial activations have been described in different subtypes of human prion diseases such as sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), variant CJD, Kuru and Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease (GSS). However, the situation of microglia in other genetic prion diseases such as fatal familial insomnia (FFI) and familial CJD remains less understood. The brain microglia was evaluated comparatively between the FFI, G114V and sCJD cases in the study. METHODS: Specific Western blots, immunohistochemical and immunofluorescent assays were used to detect the changes of microglia and ELISA tests were used for levels of inflammatory cytokines. RESULTS: Western blots, immunohistochemical and immunofluorescent assays illustrated almost unchanged microglia in the temporal lobes of FFI and G114V gCJD, but obviously increased in those of sCJD. The Iba1-levels maintained comparable in six different brain regions of FFI and G114V cases, including thalamus, cingulate gyrus, frontal cortex, parietal cortex, occipital cortex and temporal cortex. ELISA tests for inflammatory cytokines revealed significantly up-regulated IL-1ß, IL-6 and TNF-α in the brain homogenates from sCJD, but not in those from FFI and G114V gCJD. CONCLUSION: Data here demonstrates silent brain microglia in FFI and G114V gCJD but obviously increased in sCJD, which reflects various pathogenesis of different human prion diseases subtypes.

Human and animal spongiform encephalopathies are the result of chronic autoimmune attack in the CNS: a novel medical theory supported by overwhelming experimental evidence.

Spongiform encephalopathies, also called "prion diseases", are fatal degenerative diseases of the central nervous system which can occur in animals (such as the "mad cow disease" in cattle) and also in humans. This paper presents a novel medical theory concerning the pathogenic mechanisms for various human and animal spongiform encephalopathies. It is hypothesized that various forms of prion diseases are essentially autoimmune diseases, resulting from chronic autoimmune attack of the central nervous system. A key step in the pathogenic process leading towards the development of spongiform encephalopathies involves the production of specific autoimmune antibodies against the disease-causing prion protein (PrPsc) and possibly other immunogenic macromolecules present in the brain. As precisely explained in this paper, the autoimmune antibodies produced against PrPsc are responsible for the conversion of the normal cellular prion protein (PrPc) to PrPsc, for the accumulation of PrPsc in the brain and other peripheral tissues, and also for the initiation of an antibody-mediated chronic autoimmune attack of the central nervous system neurons, which would contribute to the development of characteristic pathological changes and clinical symptoms associated with spongiform encephalopathies. The validity and correctness of the proposed theory is supported by an overwhelming body of experimental observations that are scattered in the biomedical literature. In addition, the theory also offers practical new strategies for early diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of various human and animal prion diseases.