| First Author | Billeter M | Year | 1997 |
| Journal | Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A | Volume | 94 |
| Issue | 14 | Pages | 7281-5 |
| PubMed ID | 9207082 | Mgi Jnum | J:41785 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:894482 | Doi | 10.1073/pnas.94.14.7281 |
| Citation | Billeter M, et al. (1997) Prion protein NMR structure and species barrier for prion diseases. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 94(14):7281-5 |
| abstractText | The structural basis of species specificity of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, has been investigated using the refined NMR structure of the C-terminal domain of the mouse prion protein with residues 121-231. A database search for mammalian prion proteins yielded 23 different sequences for the fragment 124-226, which display a high degree of sequence identity and show relevant amino acid substitutions in only 18 of the 103 positions. Except for a unique isolated negative surface charge in the bovine protein, the amino acid differences are clustered in three distinct regions of the three-dimensional structure of the cellular form of the prion protein. Two of these regions represent potential species-dependent surface recognition sites for protein-protein interactions, which have independently been implicated from in vitro and in vivo studies of prion protein transformation. The third region consists of a cluster of interior hydrophobic side chains that may affect prion protein transformation at later stages, after initial conformational changes in the cellular protein. |
