Myositis facilitates preclinical accumulation of pathological prion protein in muscle

In human and animal prion diseases, pathological prion protein, PrPSc, as well as prion infectivity is mainly found in the central nervous system, but also in lymphoid organs and muscle. Pathophysiology of prion colonization of lymphoid organs has been studied intensively, yet how myositis influences prion accumulation in muscle is unknown.

We have investigated the influence of myositis on PrPSc accumulation and prion infectivity in two distinct mouse models of experimental autoimmune myositis. Furthermore, we have addressed the relevance of PrPC expression in the lymphoreticular system in myositis by generating bone marrow chimeras.Here we show that myositis positively influences muscular PrPSc accumulation at preclinical time points and that PrPC-expression in the lymphoid system is critical for this. In muscle, PrPSc and prion infectivity are uncoupled with detectable PrPSc but no prion infectivity at preclinical time points. Muscle has an intrinsically high ability to clear PrPSc once myositis has ceased, possibly involving autophagy.

Our findings provide new insights into the pathophysiology of prion colonization in muscle pointing out that myositis leads to enhanced prion colonization of muscle in subclinical prion disease.