Susceptibility to scrapie disease in sheep, the archetypal prion disease, correlates with polymorphisms within the ovine PrP (prion-related protein) gene. The VRQ (Val¹³⁶Arg¹⁵⁴Gln¹⁷¹) and AL141RQ (Ala¹³⁶Leu¹⁴¹Arg¹⁵⁴Gln¹⁷¹) allelic variants are associated with classical scrapie, whereas the ARR (Ala¹³⁶Arg¹⁵⁴Arg¹⁷¹), AF141RQ (Ala¹³⁶Phe¹⁴¹Arg¹⁵⁴Gln¹⁷¹) and AHQ (Ala¹³⁶His¹⁵⁴Gln¹⁷¹) allelic variants are associated with atypical scrapie. Recent studies have suggested that there are differences in the stability of PrPSc (abnormal disease-specific conformation of PrP) associated with these different forms of scrapie. To address which structural features of ovine PrP may contribute to this difference, in the present study we have investigated the conformational stability and susceptibility to aggregation of allelic variants of ovine PrP associated with classical or atypical scrapie. We find that the melting temperature of ovine recombinant VRQ and AL141RQ PrP is higher than that of AF141RQ, AHQ and ARR. In addition, monoclonal-antibody studies show that the region around helix-1 of VRQ and AL141RQ is less accessible compared with other ovine PrP allelic variants. Furthermore, the extent of both the structural change to copper-ion-treatment and denaturant-induced aggregation was reduced in PrP associated with atypical scrapie compared with PrP associated with classical scrapie. Through the use of molecular dynamics simulations we have found that these biochemical and biophysical properties of ovine PrP correlate with the ease of unwinding of helix-2 and a concurrent conformational change of the helix-2–helix-3 loop. These results reveal significant differences in the overall stability and potential for aggregation of different allelic variants of ovine PrP and consequently have implications for the differences in stability of PrPSc associated with classical and atypical scrapie.

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