Differential expression of cellular prion protein (PrP C ) in mouse hepatitis virus induced neuroinflammation

The cellular prion protein (PrP C ) is an extracellular cell membrane protein. Due to its diversified roles, a definite role of PrP C has been difficult to establish. During viral infection, PrP C has been reported to play a pleiotropic role. Here, we have attempted to envision the function of PrP C in the neurotropic m-CoV-MHV-RSA59-induced model of neuroinflammation in C57BL/6 mice. A significant upregulation of PrP C at protein and mRNA levels was evident in infected mouse brains during the acute phase of neuroinflammation. Furthermore, investigation of the effect of MHV-RSA59 infection on prion expression in specific neuronal, microglial, and astrocytoma cell lines, revealed a differential expression of prion during neuroinflammation. Additionally, siRNA-mediated downregulation of prnp transcripts reduced the expression of viral antigen and viral infectivity in these cell lines. Cumulatively, our results suggest that PrP C expression significantly increases during acute MHV-RSA59 infection and that PrP C also assists in viral infectivity and viral replication.