Evaluation of new cell culture inhibitors of protease-resistant prion protein against scrapie infection in mice.

In vitro inhibitors of the accumulation of abnormal (protease-resistant) prion protein (PrP-res) can sometimes prolong the lives of scrapie-infected rodents. Here, transgenic mice were used to test the in vivo anti-scrapie activities of new PrP-res inhibitors, which, because they are approved drugs or edible natural products, might be considered for clinical trials in humans or livestock with transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). These inhibitors were amodiaquine, thioridazine, thiothixene, trifluoperazine, tetrandrine, tannic acid and polyphenolic extracts of tea, grape seed and pine bark.

New inhibitors of scrapie-associated prion protein formation in a library of 2000 drugs and natural products.

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are fatal, untreatable neurodegenerative diseases associated with the accumulation of a disease-specific form of prion protein (PrP) in the brain. One approach to TSE therapeutics is the inhibition of PrP accumulation. Indeed, many inhibitors of the accumulation of PrP associated with scrapie (PrP(Sc)) in scrapie-infected mouse neuroblastoma cells (ScN(2)a) also have antiscrapie activity in rodents.