Figure 1. Conversion activity of brain derived PrP^C in the CAA seeded with infected brain homogenates.

(A) UBH from balb/c (WT) mice were subjected to the CAA in the presence of IBH for differing periods of time (0–24 hours). B) The CAA was performed for 16 hours using IBH added to DPBS, or UBH from KO, WT or PrP over expressing Tga20 (TG) mice. DPBS represents total (DPBS⁻ without PK treatment), and protease resistant (DPBS⁺ with PK treatment) PrP present in the IBH used to seed the CAA. Relative PrP^C expression (without PK treatment) is shown in right of panel for KO, WT and TG mice. Conversion activity was determined as the fold increase in immunoreactive signal of WT relative to KO reactions after overnight (or as indicated) incubation at 37°C and treatment with PK (100µg/ml, 1hr at 37°C). Blots developed with 03R19. Molecular weights (kDa) are shown. Western blots are representative of replicated experiments, quantification is based on at least three experiments, mean and SEM are shown. *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001 using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey's multiple comparison test (GraphPad, Prism).