PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Vincent Béringue
AU  - Olivier Andréoletti
AU  - Annick Le Dur
AU  - Rachid Essalmani
AU  - Jean-Luc Vilotte
AU  - Caroline Lacroux
AU  - Fabienne Reine
AU  - Laëtitia Herzog
AU  - Anne-Gaëlle Biacabé
AU  - Thierry Baron
AU  - Maria Caramelli
AU  - Cristina Casalone
AU  - Hubert Laude
TI  - A Bovine Prion Acquires an Epidemic Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Strain-Like Phenotype on Interspecies Transmission
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0693-07.2007
DP  - 2007 Jun 27
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 6965--6971
VI  - 27
IP  - 26
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/27/26/6965.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/27/26/6965.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.2007 Jun 27; 27
AB  - Implementation in Europe of large-scale testing to detect bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)-infected cattle and prevent the transmission of this prion disease to humans has recently led to the discovery of novel types of bovine prions. We characterized atypical isolates called BSE L-type by analyzing their molecular and neuropathological properties during transmission to several mouse lines transgenic for the prion protein (PrP). Unexpectedly, such isolates acquired strain features closely similar to those of BSE-type agents when propagated in mice expressing ovine PrP, although they retained phenotypic traits distinct from BSE in other lines, including bovine PrP mice. These findings further underline the relationship between the crossing of species barrier and prion strain diversification, and, although the origin of the epidemic BSE agent has only been speculative until now, they provide new insight into the nature of the events that could have led to the appearance of this agent.