PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Kong, Qingzhong
AU  - Huang, Shenghai
AU  - Zou, Wenquan
AU  - Vanegas, Difernando
AU  - Wang, Meiling
AU  - Wu, Di
AU  - Yuan, Jue
AU  - Zheng, Mengjie
AU  - Bai, Hua
AU  - Deng, Huayun
AU  - Chen, Ken
AU  - Jenny, Allen L.
AU  - O'Rourke, Katherine
AU  - Belay, Ermias D.
AU  - Schonberger, Lawrence B.
AU  - Petersen, Robert B.
AU  - Sy, Man-Sun
AU  - Chen, Shu G.
AU  - Gambetti, Pierluigi
TI  - Chronic Wasting Disease of Elk: Transmissibility to Humans Examined by Transgenic Mouse Models
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2467-05.2005
DP  - 2005 Aug 31
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 7944--7949
VI  - 25
IP  - 35
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/25/35/7944.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/25/35/7944.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.2005 Aug 31; 25
AB  - Chronic wasting disease (CWD), a prion disease affecting free-ranging and captive cervids (deer and elk), is widespread in the United States and parts of Canada. The large cervid population, the popularity of venison consumption, and the apparent spread of the CWD epidemic are likely resulting in increased human exposure to CWD in the United States. Whether CWD is transmissible to humans, as has been shown for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (the prion disease of cattle), is unknown. We generated transgenic mice expressing the elk or human prion protein (PrP) in a PrP-null background. After intracerebral inoculation with elk CWD prion, two lines of “humanized” transgenic mice that are susceptible to human prions failed to develop the hallmarks of prion diseases after >657 and >756 d, respectively, whereas the “cervidized” transgenic mice became infected after 118–142 d. These data indicate that there is a substantial species barrier for transmission of elk CWD to humans.