Leila Kupfer Einflüsse der Aminosäuresequenz und erregerspezifischer Eigenschaften auf die Konvertierbarkeit chimärer Prion-Proteine in vitro Institut für Tierhygiene und Öffentliches Veterinärwesen, Veterinärmedizinische Fakultät, Universität Leipzig und Institut für Neue und Neuartige Tierseuchenerreger des Friedrich-Loeffler-Institutes, Bundesforschungsinstitut für Tiergesundheit, Insel Riems Eingereicht im Februar 2007 127 Seiten, 40 Abbildungen, 4 Tabellen, 230 Literaturangaben, 13 Seiten Anhang Schlüsselwörter: zellfreie Konversion, chimäres Prion-Protein, Aminosäuresequenz, stammspezifische Eigenschaften Die genauen molekularen Mechanismen bei der Entstehung der transmissiblen spongiformen Enzephalopathien (TSE) sind immer noch nicht eindeutig geklärt. Es wird vermutet, dass das auslösende Ereignis, die irreversible Umfaltung oder Konversion eines körpereigenen Membranproteins, des zellulären Prion-Proteins PrPC in seine krankheitsassoziierte, Proteinase K (PK) resistente Isoform PrPSc, eine ‚autokatalytische’ Konversionsreaktion initiiert. In verschiedenen Studien wurde gezeigt, dass dabei die Aminosäuresequenzen des PrPC und PrPSc die Effizienz dieser Konversionsreaktion sowohl bei Übertragungen innerhalb derselben Spezies als auch über Speziesgrenzen hinweg beeinflussen. Am Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut wurden in vergangenen Arbeiten zwei transgene Inzucht-Mauslinien etabliert, die auf der Basis von amino- und carboxyterminalen murinen Anteilen ein chimäres PrPC mit zentralen ovinen (Tgmushp XIX) oder bovinen (Tgmubo XIII) Sequenzen exprimieren. Erstaunlicherweise erwiesen sich die Tgmubo XIII-Mäuse als nahezu resistent gegen verschiedene TSE-Erreger aus Schaf, Rind und Maus, während die Tiere der Linie Tgmushp XIX ausgesprochen gut infizierbar waren. Da sich die PrP-Sequenz dieser beiden Mauslinien um lediglich vier Aminosäurereste unterscheidet, war es Ziel dieser Studie zu ermitteln, welcher Aminosäure-Austausch die verminderte Infizierbarkeit der Tgmubo XIII bedingt. Um kostenspielige und zeitaufwenige Tierversuche zu vermeiden, wurde hierzu ein zellfreier Konversionsansatz gewählt. Dieser birgt den Vorteil, dass die molekularen Einflüsse auf die Konversion in einem stark vereinfachten System innerhalb weniger Tage festgestellt werden können. Insgesamt wurden 19 verschiedene PrPC-Mutanten kloniert, in E. coli rekombinant exprimiert, affinitätschromatographisch aufgereinigt und im zellfreien Konversionsassay mit Zusammenfassung 85 ebenfalls hochaufgereinigtem PrPSc aus Gehirnextrakten final BSE- oder Scrapie-infizierter (drei unterschiedliche Erregerstämme: Me7, 22A, 87V) Mäuse für bis zu drei Tage inkubiert. Die stattgefundene Konversion der Mutanten wurde anschließend mittels PK-Verdau festgestellt. Die im Tierversuch ermittelten Ergebnisse für Tgmubo XIII und Tgmushp XIX konnten so in vitro für PrP-mubo und PrP-mushp bestätigt werden, d.h. nur letzteres wurde in ein PK-resistentes PrPres-Fragment konvertiert. Ausgehend von PrP-mushp wurden die vier unterschiedlichen Positionen gegen die jeweils entsprechende Aminosäure aus PrP-mubo mutiert. Dabei zeigte der Austausch von Asparagin gegen Serin auf Position 142 der chimären Sequenz den stärksten Effekt: PrP-mushpN142S ließ sich nur durch Koinkubation mit BSE-, aber nicht mehr durch Scrapie-PrPSc konvertieren. Substitutionen durch Alanin oder Glutamin führten zu einer weiteren Minderung der Konversionsrate. Auch beim Austausch mehrerer Aminosäuren in Kombination mit Serin an Position 142 wurde der hemmende Effekt dieser Substitution deutlich. Einen ähnlichen, wenn auch nicht ganz so starken Einfluss hatten Aminosäureaustausche auf Position 185. Wurde dort anstelle von Glutamin Glutamat eingefügt, konnte das so entstandene Konstrukt PrP-mushpQ185E nicht mehr durch Me7 aber noch durch 22A, 87V und BSE konvertiert werden. Wurde Glutamin durch Alanin oder Asparagin ersetzt, verminderte sich die Konversionsrate für 22A, 87V und BSE. Diese Effekte traten nur bei chimärem PrPC auf. Der singuläre Austausch der entsprechenden Aminosäuren 146 und 189 der ovinen Sequenz gegen die des bovinen PrPC zeigten keine derartige Hemmung der Konvertierbarkeit. Genauso wenig hatte die Deletion des Aminoterminus der chimären Prion-Proteine einen hemmenden Effekt. Lediglich nach Inkubation mit mauspassagierter BSE stellte sich das PrPres-Fragment des PrP-mushpΔ94 als Doppelbande im Immunoblot dar, deren Bedeutung jedoch unbekannt ist. Durch den zellfreien Konversionsassay konnten die im Tierversuch ermittelten Ergebnisse bezüglich der Empfänglichkeit der transgenen, chimäres Prion-Protein exprimierenden Mauslinien bestätigt werden. Die Erkenntnis, dass zwei Aminosäuren der chimären Sequenz für die Inkonvertibilität verantwortlich sind, zeigt, dass ein direkter Zusammenhang zwischen der Primärstruktur des Prion-Proteins und dessen Überführbarkeit in seine pathologische Isoform besteht. Zusätzlich konnten stammspezifische Effekte auf die zellfreie Konversion ermittelt werden, die zum einen ebenfalls von der Aminosäuresequenz des rekombinanten PrPC, zum anderen aber auch von den Eigenschaften des jeweiligen eingesetzten Stammes abhängen. Die in der vorgestellten Arbeit ermittelten Ergebnisse untermauern die Prionhypothese, wonach einzelne Aminosäuren des Prion-Proteins die Erregervermehrung maßgeblich beeinflussen können. Allerdings werfen die beobachteten stammspezifischen Effekte auch bisher ungelöste Fragen zu den dabei zugrunde liegenden Mechanismen auf

Yeast prions e.g. [PSI+], [PIN+] and [URE3] are similar to mammalian amyloids that cause neurodegenerative diseases. [PSI+] is the aggregated self-perpetuating (prion) isoform of Sup35, a translation termination factor. The molecular chaperone Hsp104 plays a crucial role in the maintenance and propagation of [PSI+]. Deletion of the GET2 gene has been shown to cause a [PSI+] curing defect by excess Hsp104 and [PSI+] instability on synthetic medium (S. Muller, J. Patterson and Y. Chernoff, unpublished data; and J. Patterson Honors Thesis). Get2 is a membrane protein working in a complex with Get1 and Get3 proteins. This complex, called GET (Golgi-to-ER Traffic), is known to retrieve resident ER proteins from Golgi. In this particular study we provide further evidence for the connection between the GET pathway and yeast prions. The get2 deletion also leads to a detectable loss of [PIN+] prion on synthetic medium. The role of the other two members of the Get complex in prion propagation is also explored. The levels and the activity of Hsp104 in the get2 mutants is analyzed. The size of [PSI+] aggregates in the get2Δ strain is compared to that found in wild type. Finally, other possible mechanisms for the effect of get2 on prion maintenance and propagation are addressed.

How the linear protein chains fold into their three-dimensional active conformation is one of the remaining puzzles of modern science. Other than molecular chaperones, ribosome - the cellular protein synthesis machinery, has also been implicated in protein folding. The active site of protein folding activity of the ribosome (PFAR) is in the domain V of the main RNA component of the large ribosomal subunit, which also constitutes the peptidyl transferase center. We have characterized the mechanism of PFAR using ribosomes or ribosome-borne folding modulators (RFMs) and human carbonic anhydrase I (HCA) as a model system. RFMs from all three kingdoms of life showed PFAR.  By multiple addition of the denatured protein in the refolding assay we demonstrate that the RFMs can recycle efficiently to assist refolding of a new batch of denatured protein. The turnover of the RFMs, which includes release of the protein substrate, takes milliseconds. Furthermore, fast kinetics of HCA refolding suggests that an early folding intermediate is the substrate for PFAR. Our results demonstrate for the first time that PFAR is catalytic. It was shown that two anti-prion drugs 6AP and GA specifically inhibit PFAR by binding to the domain V of the 23S / 25S rRNA. Using UV-crosslinking followed by primer extension we have identified the interaction sites of 6AP on domain V of 23S rRNA, which overlap with the protein binding sites, and are sensitive to mutagenesis. We find that 6AP and GA inhibit PFAR by direct competition with the substrate protein for the binding sites. Also, 6AP derivatives inhibit PFAR in the same order as their antiprion activity, 6AP8CF3 > 6AP8Cl > 6AP > 6APi. These results suggest involvement of PFAR in prion processes. To clarify the role of PFAR in prion processes, we studied HET-s prion aggregation in the presence of domain V/ IV/II of rRNA. The rRNAs, especially domain V rRNA not only reduced HET-s aggregation, but also changed the morphology of the HET-s fibrils, which became shorter and less compact. These results show that PFAR actively prevents large amyloid aggregation and thus, possibly influence prion propagation.

Epigenetics is the study of heritable biological variation not related to changes in DNA sequence. Epigenetic processes are responsible for establishing and maintaining transcriptional programs that define cell identity. Defects to epigenetic processes have been linked to a host of disorders, including mental retardation, aging, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. The ability to control and engineer epigenetic systems would be valuable both for the basic study of these critical cellular processes as well as for synthetic biology. Indeed, while synthetic biology has made progress using bottom-up approaches to engineer transcriptional and signaling circuitry, epigenetic systems have remained largely underutilized. The predictive engineering of epigenetic systems could enable new functions to be implemented in synthetic organisms, including programmed phenotypic diversity, memory, reversibility, inheritance, and hysteresis. This thesis broadly focuses on the development of foundational tools and intellectual frameworks for applying synthetic biology to epigenetic regulation in the model eukaryote, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Epigenetic regulation is mediated by diverse molecular mechanisms: e.g. self-sustaining feedback loops, protein structural templating, modifications to chromatin, and RNA silencing. Here we develop synthetic tools and circuits for controlling epigenetic states through (1) modifications to chromatin and (2) self-templating protein conformations. On the former, the synthetic tools we develop make it possible to study and direct how chromatin regulators operate to produce distinct gene expression programs. On the latter, we focus our studies on yeast prions, which are self-templating protein conformations that act as elements of inheritance, developing synthetic tools for detecting and controlling prion states in yeast cells. This thesis explores the application of synthetic biology to these epigenetic systems through four aims: Aim 1. Development of inducible expression systems for precise temporal expression of epigenetic regulators Aim 2. Construction of a library of chromatin regulators to study and program chromatin-based epigenetic regulation. Aim 3. Development of a genetic tool for quantifying protein aggregation and prion states in high-throughput Aim 4. Dynamics and control of prion switching Our tools and studies enable a deeper functional understanding of epigenetic regulation in cells, and the repurposing of these systems for synthetic biology toward addressing industrial and medical applications. / 2019-10-08T00:00:00Z

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is the commonest form of human prion disease and occurs in sporadic, genetic and acquired forms. The causative agents (prions) appear to be composed entirely of a modified host protein, the prion protein, which undergoes misfolding to a disease-associated isoform closely associated with infectivity that is resistant to conventional methods of decontamination. Prions can be transmitted from one individual to another by medical and surgical procedures, resulting in iatrogenic CJD (iCJD). The commonest cause of iCJD is the inoculation of cadaveric pituitary-derived human growth hormone (hGH) to treat growth hormone deficiency in children; this form of treatment was abandoned in 1985 after the first UK case of iCJD in a hGH recipient was identified. Seventy-eight cases of iCJD have since occurred in the UK cohort of 1849 hGH recipients, including a case in 2016. This thesis describes a comprehensive tissue-based and molecular genetic analysis of the largest series (35 cases) of UK hGH-iCJD cases reported to date, including in vitro kinetic molecular modelling of genotypic factors influencing prion transmission. The results show that the polymorphism at codon 129 of the prion protein gene strongly influences the disease incubation period in hGH-iCJD (from 7.8-32.3 years in this series) and interacts with the infectious prion strain to govern the molecular and pathological characteristics of iCJD. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the UK hGH-iCJD epidemic resulted from transmission of the V2 human prion strain, which is found in the second most common form of sporadic CJD. The investigation also found accumulation of the amyloid beta (Aβ) protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in the brains and cerebral blood vessels in 18/35 hGH-iCJD patients and 5/12 control patients who had been treated with hGH, but died from causes other than iCJD. In contrast, Aβ accumulation was markedly less prevalent in age-matched patients who died from sporadic CJD (1/15 cases) and variant CJD (2/33 cases). These results are consistent with the hypothesis that Aβ, which can accumulate in the pituitary gland, was present in the inoculated hGH preparations and seeded into the brains of around 50% of all hGH recipients, producing AD-like neuropathology and cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). This provides further evidence of the prion-like properties of Aβ and gives insight into the potential for possible transmission of AD/CAA. It is uncertain whether any Aβ seeding within the brains of surviving patients in the UK hGH recipient cohort will ultimately result in clinical AD; however, the CAA in these patients may be complicated by intracerebral haemorrhage resulting from rupture of the blood vessels damaged by Aβ accumulation within their walls.

Prion diseases are formed by a conformational change of prion-like protein (PrPC) with alfa-helix structure to the pathological isoform - prion (PrPSc) which acquires beta-sheet structure. PrPC physiological properties in the brain are insufficiently described but there is an assumption of its affinity to metal ions. Another protein with metal-binding ability is metallothionein (MT). Brain specific isoform of MT is called MT-III and it is assumed to participate in maintenance of metal ions concentration in the brain. Aim of this study was to prepare recombinant human PrPC in E. coli. Furthermore, this protein was used to detect interactions between metal ions (Cu, Zn), MT and PrPC by differential pulse voltammetry method. The final part was devoted to the MT-III determination in different genotypes of prion-infected and non-infectious mouse brain tissues.

Ratos que não expressam a proteína prion celular (PrPc) são mais sensíveis a crises epilépticas induzidas por diferentes protocolos. O hipocampo desses animais apresenta um brotamento supragranular de fibras musgosas semelhante ao observado em pacientes com epilepsia de lobo temporal relacionada a esclerose hipocampal (ELT-EH). Esses achados sugerem que a PrPc pode estar envolvida na epileptogênese da ELT-EH. Nós estudamos nessa tese a localização imunoistoquímica da PrPc no hipocampo de animais submetidos ao modelo de epilepsia de lobo temporal por pilocarpina (MELTP)em diferentes tempos de status epilepticus em ratos. Nesse trabalho induzimos estado de mal epileptico (EE) com o uso de pilocarpina em três diferentes grupos de ratos Wistar adultos. Os animais foram sacrificados 18 horas, 5 dias e 2 meses após a indução do EE. Os resultados foram comparados com cérebros controles de ratos que receberam injeções de solução salina. As lâminas foram processadas para coloração por hematoxilinaeosina, imunohistoquímica e neo-Timm. Observamos um aumento da expressão de PrPc nas regiões CA1 e CA3 do hipocampo 18 horas depois da injeção de pilocarpina. Essa expressão aumentada persistiu na região CA1 no quinto dia após a injeção. Não observamos diferenças significativas na expressão de PrPc durante a fase aguda do MELTP nas regiões CA2 e granular do hipocampo. No grupo crônico (2 meses) a PrPc foi observada na mesma localização em que se observou brotamento de fibras musgosas. Concluímos com esse trabalho que a expressão da PrPc é diferente nas diversas fases do modelo de epilepsia induzido por pilocarpina. A expressão transitória da proteína prion durante a fase aguda do modelo pode refletir mudanças de expressão visando tornar as células mais resistentes ao dano induzido pelas crises convulsivas. Alternativamente, essa expressão aumentada pode estar relacionadas à apotose ou então às fases iniciais da neuroplasticidade. A expressão de PrPc na mesma região dos brotamentos de fibras musgosas na fase crônica pode estar relacionada à neuroplasticidade, epileptogênese, neurotransmissão ou, ainda, estar implicada na proteção celular contra crises convulsivas recorrentes. Devido aos diversos achados relacionados a PrPc, sugerimos que o modelo de epilepsia do lobo temporal induzido pela pilocarpina possa ser um interessante modelo para o estudo do papel fisiológico da PrPc. / Mice lacking cellular prion protein (PrPc) are more sensitive to seizures induced by four different pharmacological protocols. The hippocampal formation of these animals exhibits supragranular mossy fiber sprouting which resembles that observed in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy related to hippocampal sclerosis (MTLEHS). These findings suggest that the PrPc may be involved in epileptogenesis in MTLE-HS. Here we investigated the immunohistochemical localization of the PrPc in the hippocampus of animals submitted to the pilocarpine model of temporal lobe epilepsy (PMTLE). Status epilepticus (SE) was induced with pilocarpine in three different groups of adult Wistar rats. The animals were sacrificed 18 hours, 5 days, and 2 months after SE induction and the results were compared to the respective saline-injected control animals. Slices were processed for hematoxylin-eosin, PrPc immunohistochemistry and neo-Timm .PrPc was increased in the CA1 and in CA3 regions of the hippocampus 18 hours after pilocarpine injection. PrPc continued to be increased in the CA1 region of the hippocampus five days after pilocarpine injection. In the CA2 and granular regions of the hippocampus we did not observe significant differences in PrPc expression during the acute phase of PMTLE. In the chronic group, PrPc was expressed co-localized with mossy fiber sprouting. Cellular prion protein is differentially expressed at different phases of the pilocarpine model of epilepsy. Transient expression of PrPc during the acute phase of the pilocarpine model may reflect changes which may render cells more resistant to seizure-induced damage and may be related to apoptosis or may to the initial phases of neuroplasticity. During the chronic period, PrPc is co-expressed in the same regions of mossy fiber sprouting. In chronic animals, PrPc might be related to neuroplasticity, epileptogenic processes, neurotransmission, or alternatively may be implicated in cellular protection against recurrent seizures.

Neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) is an inherited, multiple tumour disease caused by loss of the tumour suppressor protein, Merlin. There are several tumours associated with NF2 including; ependymomas, meningiomas and schwannomas. Merlin loss can also occur sporadically in all of these tumours and is associated with upregulation of various growth factor receptors and their relevant signalling pathways. At present the only treatment options for NF2 are surgery or radiosurgery, both of which incur serious morbidity and are unable to prevent recurrence of tumours. Either new drug treatments, or re-profiling of other drugs already commercially available, are urgently needed to improve outcome for NF2 patients. Cellular prion protein (PrPC), encoded by PRNP gene, is involved in tumour development by altering proliferation, adhesion, and survival in some cancers via focal adhesion kinase (FAK) /Src/ NFκB, cyclin D1 and p53 -proteins. Our group previously showed a strong elevation of PRNP gene activity in schwannoma. I hypothesise that PrPC may contribute to schwannoma development. To study the role of PrPC in schwannoma development I have used the well-established in vitro model of schwannoma that comprises primary human Schwann and schwannoma cells. I show that PrPC is upregulated in schwannoma as well as in Merlin-deficient meningiomas and human malignant mesotheliomas. In schwannoma PrPC is released both via exosomes and by α-cleavage which forms biologically active N- and C-terminal portions of the protein. PrPC contributes to pathological proliferation, adhesion and survival of schwannoma cells by activating ERK1/2, PI3K/AKT, cyclin D1, FAK, p53 pathways via the 37/67kDa non-integrin laminin receptor (LR/37/67kDa) and CD44. Furthermore, schwannoma cells appear to be intrinsically drug-resistant due to upregulation of MDR1 protein p-glycoprotein (p-gp) expression. P-gp expression is dependent on PrPC thus, inhibiting PrPC may be a good potential new therapeutic option for schwannoma patients, either alone or in combination with Sorafenib and p-gp inhibitor Valspodar (PSC833). An inhibitor of LR/37/67kDa/PrP interaction, NSC47924, or Bortezomib, a proteasome/NFκB inhibitor which has been approved for the treatment of multiple myeloma, could also be of beneficial therapeutic effect and is something to investigate in future work. I conclude that PrPC is an interesting new therapeutic target through its involvement with schwannoma patholgenesis and resistance to drug treatments PrPC may prove to be a good therapeutic target in other NF2-related tumours like meningiomas and schwannomas.

Ratos que não expressam a proteína prion celular (PrPc) são mais sensíveis a crises epilépticas induzidas por diferentes protocolos. O hipocampo desses animais apresenta um brotamento supragranular de fibras musgosas semelhante ao observado em pacientes com epilepsia de lobo temporal relacionada a esclerose hipocampal (ELT-EH). Esses achados sugerem que a PrPc pode estar envolvida na epileptogênese da ELT-EH. Nós estudamos nessa tese a localização imunoistoquímica da PrPc no hipocampo de animais submetidos ao modelo de epilepsia de lobo temporal por pilocarpina (MELTP)em diferentes tempos de status epilepticus em ratos. Nesse trabalho induzimos estado de mal epileptico (EE) com o uso de pilocarpina em três diferentes grupos de ratos Wistar adultos. Os animais foram sacrificados 18 horas, 5 dias e 2 meses após a indução do EE. Os resultados foram comparados com cérebros controles de ratos que receberam injeções de solução salina. As lâminas foram processadas para coloração por hematoxilinaeosina, imunohistoquímica e neo-Timm. Observamos um aumento da expressão de PrPc nas regiões CA1 e CA3 do hipocampo 18 horas depois da injeção de pilocarpina. Essa expressão aumentada persistiu na região CA1 no quinto dia após a injeção. Não observamos diferenças significativas na expressão de PrPc durante a fase aguda do MELTP nas regiões CA2 e granular do hipocampo. No grupo crônico (2 meses) a PrPc foi observada na mesma localização em que se observou brotamento de fibras musgosas. Concluímos com esse trabalho que a expressão da PrPc é diferente nas diversas fases do modelo de epilepsia induzido por pilocarpina. A expressão transitória da proteína prion durante a fase aguda do modelo pode refletir mudanças de expressão visando tornar as células mais resistentes ao dano induzido pelas crises convulsivas. Alternativamente, essa expressão aumentada pode estar relacionadas à apotose ou então às fases iniciais da neuroplasticidade. A expressão de PrPc na mesma região dos brotamentos de fibras musgosas na fase crônica pode estar relacionada à neuroplasticidade, epileptogênese, neurotransmissão ou, ainda, estar implicada na proteção celular contra crises convulsivas recorrentes. Devido aos diversos achados relacionados a PrPc, sugerimos que o modelo de epilepsia do lobo temporal induzido pela pilocarpina possa ser um interessante modelo para o estudo do papel fisiológico da PrPc. / Mice lacking cellular prion protein (PrPc) are more sensitive to seizures induced by four different pharmacological protocols. The hippocampal formation of these animals exhibits supragranular mossy fiber sprouting which resembles that observed in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy related to hippocampal sclerosis (MTLEHS). These findings suggest that the PrPc may be involved in epileptogenesis in MTLE-HS. Here we investigated the immunohistochemical localization of the PrPc in the hippocampus of animals submitted to the pilocarpine model of temporal lobe epilepsy (PMTLE). Status epilepticus (SE) was induced with pilocarpine in three different groups of adult Wistar rats. The animals were sacrificed 18 hours, 5 days, and 2 months after SE induction and the results were compared to the respective saline-injected control animals. Slices were processed for hematoxylin-eosin, PrPc immunohistochemistry and neo-Timm .PrPc was increased in the CA1 and in CA3 regions of the hippocampus 18 hours after pilocarpine injection. PrPc continued to be increased in the CA1 region of the hippocampus five days after pilocarpine injection. In the CA2 and granular regions of the hippocampus we did not observe significant differences in PrPc expression during the acute phase of PMTLE. In the chronic group, PrPc was expressed co-localized with mossy fiber sprouting. Cellular prion protein is differentially expressed at different phases of the pilocarpine model of epilepsy. Transient expression of PrPc during the acute phase of the pilocarpine model may reflect changes which may render cells more resistant to seizure-induced damage and may be related to apoptosis or may to the initial phases of neuroplasticity. During the chronic period, PrPc is co-expressed in the same regions of mossy fiber sprouting. In chronic animals, PrPc might be related to neuroplasticity, epileptogenic processes, neurotransmission, or alternatively may be implicated in cellular protection against recurrent seizures.

Les maladies à Prions sont des maladies neurodégénératives fatales, touchant l'homme et l'animal. Même si le risque de transmission de la maladie de la vache folle à l'homme semble maîtrisé, il persiste actuellement un risque de santé publique lié à la transmission iatrogène de cette forme, notamment par transfusion sanguine. Pour contrôler cette transmission, il est donc essentiel de mieux comprendre les mécanismes moléculaires et cellulaires de réplication et de dissémination des Prions. Ces mécanismes de réplication se produisent à des échelles de temps et de taille difficilement accessibles expérimentalement, et ont ainsi fait l'objet de nombreuses modélisations théoriques utiles pour aider à la compréhension des mécanismes. L'objectif de cette thèse est de compléter ces modèles mathématiques, afin d'étudier plus spécifiquement les conséquences dynamiques sur la réplication des Prions, des propriétés de réplication taille-dépendante d'une part, et de l'hétérogénéité des cellules impliquées dans la réplication d'autre part. Dans un premier temps, nous avons généralisé un modèle de polymérisation nucléée pour prendre en compte un taux d'élongation des fibrilles dépendant de leur taille. Nous avons principalement déduit de cette étude que la distribution en taille des agrégats semble une donnée expérimentale très informative sur les mécanismes élémentaires de réplication, au contraire du profil cinétique d'accumulation de la PrPres peu sensibles aux propriétés de réplication taille-dépendantes. Dans un second temps, après une caractérisation expérimentale de l'hétérogénéité cellulaire de réplication, nous avons intégré le mécanisme de réplication intracellulaire à un modèle multicellulaire par automate cellulaire continu stochastique. De manière appliquée, cette étude nous a permis d'identifier des étapes du processus de culture cellulaire critiques pour l'établissement d'une infection chronique, et nous a permis de proposer plusieurs protocoles pour augmenter la sensibilité des cultures cellulaires aux infections à Prions. / Prion diseases are neurodegenerative, fatal and transmissible diseases, with no effective treatment. The risk of transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy to humans is now under control ; however the risk of human-to-human transmission of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease via medical treatments (notably through blood transfusion) remains. Thus, understanding cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for Prion replication and dissemination is critical to efficiently control Prion transmission. The mechanisms of Prion replication are poorly characterised and occur at time and size scale achieved experimentally with difficulty. Thus, mathematical models can help us understand prion multiplication by testing which mechanisms best fit to experimental data. Therefore the objectives of our study are to complete existing mathematical model in order to investigate the size-dependent replicative properties of prion aggregates and the cellular heterogeneity. Firstly, we have extended a previous study of the nucleated polymerization model to take into account size dependent replicative properties of prion aggregates. This is achieved by a choice of coefficients in the model that are not constant. Our results suggest that the size distribution of prion aggregates could be one of the most informative experimental data to study elementary replication mechanisms and to investigate strain phenomenon. Secondly, we have modelled the multicellular dynamics of prion replication by integrating intracellular replication (by nucleated polymerization) into a continuous and stochastic cellular automaton. The model formulation is based on an experimental characterisation of cellular heterogeneity. From an applicative point of view, this theoretical study has allowed us to propose several protocols to increase cell culture sensitivity to prion infection.