Quantitating PrP Polymorphisms Present in Prions from Heterozygous Scrapie-Infected Sheep

Scrapie is a prion (PrPSc) disease of sheep. The incubation period of sheep scrapie is strongly influenced by polymorphisms at positions 136, 154, and 171 of a sheep's normal cellular prion protein (PrPC). Chymotrypsin was used to digest sheep recombinant PrP to identify a set of characteristic peptides [M(132)LGSXMSRPLI.41 (X = A or V), Y153X-ENMY158 (X,= H or R), and Y166RPVDX-Y-172 (X = H, K, Qi or R)] that could be used to detect and quantitate polymorphisms at positions 136, 154, and 171 of sheep PrPc or PrPs`. These peptides were used to develop a multiple reaction monitoring method (MRM) to detect the amounts of a particular polymorphism in a sample of PrPSc isolated from sheep heterozygous for their PrPC proteins. The limit of detection for these peptides was less than 50 attomole. Spinal cord tissue from heterozygous (ARQ/VRQ_or ARH/ARQ) scrapie-infected Rasa Aragonesa sheep was analyzed using this MRM method. Both sets of heterozygotes show the presence of both polymorphisms in PrPSc. This was true for samples containing both proteinase K (PK)-sensitive and PK-resistant PrPs` and samples containing only the PK-resistant PrPs`. These results, show that heterozygous animals contain PrPs` that is composed of significant amounts of both PrP polymorphisms.