Characterisation and prion transmission study in mice with genetic reduction of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease risk geneStx6
Authors: Jones Emma , Hill Elizabeth , Linehan Jacqueline , Nazari Tamsin , Caulder Adam , Codner Gemma F , Hutchison Marie , Mackenzie Matthew , Farmer Michael , Coysh Thomas , Wiggins De Oliveira Michael , Al-Doujaily Huda , Sandberg Malin , Viré Emmanuelle , Cunningham Thomas J , Asante Emmanuel A , Brandner Sebastian , Collinge John , Mead Simon 
Published: January 2023

Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), the most common human prion disease, is thought to occur when the cellular prion protein (PrPC) spontaneously misfolds and assembles into prion fibrils, culminating in fatal neurodegeneration. In a genome-wide association study of sCJD, we recently identified risk variants in and around the geneSTX6, with evidence to suggest a causal increase ofSTX6expression in disease-relevant brain regions.STX6encodes syntaxin-6, a SNARE protein primarily involved in early endosome totrans-Golgi network retrograde transport. Here we developed and characterised a mouse model with genetic depletion ofStx6and investigated a causal role ofStx6expression in mouse prion disease through a classical prion transmission study, assessing the impact of homozygous and heterozygous syntaxin-6 knockout on disease incubation periods and prion-related neuropathology. Following inoculation with RML prions, incubation periods inStx6-/-andStx6+/-mice differed by 12 days relative to wildtype. Similarly, inStx6-/-mice, disease incubation periods following inoculation with ME7 prions also differed by 12 days. Histopathological analysis revealed a modest increase in astrogliosis in ME7-inoculatedStx6-/-animals and a variable effect ofStx6expression on microglia activation, however no differences in neuronal loss, spongiform change or PrP deposition were observed at endpoint. Importantly,Stx6-/-mice are viable and fertile with no gross impairments on a range of neurological, biochemical, histological and skeletal structure tests. Our results provide some support for a pathological role ofStx6expression in prion disease, which warrants further investigation in the context of prion disease but also other neurodegenerative diseases considering syntaxin-6 appears to have pleiotropic risk effects in progressive supranuclear palsy and Alzheimer’s disease.

Author Summary

Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), the most common human prion disease, is an invariably fatal disease with no established disease-modifying treatments. The identification ofSTX6as a proposed risk gene for sCJD motivated the generation of a new mouse knockout model, in which we found no grossly deleterious phenotypes. A transmission study inStx6-/-, Stx6+/-andStx6+/+mice challenged with two prion strains showed reduced syntaxin-6 expression is associated with a modest prolongation of prion disease incubation periods, supporting a pathological role ofStx6expression in prion disease pathogenesis. Syntaxin-6 appears to have pleiotropic risk effects across multiple neurodegenerative diseases including progressive supranuclear palsy and Alzheimer’s disease. Thus, this work supports further exploration of theSTX6susceptibility mechanism, which likely has relevance across multiple neurodegenerative diseases.