prions and immune response

[ncel]

On 21 May 1995, Ian A. York wrote:

> In article <Pine.SOL.3.91.950520202417.1834A-100000 at asrr.arsusda.gov> tdiener at ASRR.ARSUSDA.GOV (ncel) writes:
> 
> >Good question! It has been an old enigma why none of the prion diseases 
> >elicit an immune response from their hosts (or fever for that matter). 
> 
> Am I correct in recalling that the prion protein is highly resistant to 
> proteases?  If so, since T cells respond to proteolytic fragments, 
> perhaps there's no opportunity to go through the antigen presentation 
> route.  
> 
> Ian

PrPSc is only partially resistant to proteases (high conc. or long 
incubation will degrade it). PrPC is not resistant. I am not an 
immunologist; thus, somebody else better answer your question. Ted