# Shedding, retention and spreading of chronic wasting disease prions in the environment

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCI CTR HOUSTON · 2020 · $533,130

## Abstract

Principal Investigator/Program Director (Last, first, middle): Morales, Rodrigo
ABSTRACT
 Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a prion disease affecting several species of cervids. During the last
years, CWD has acquired notoriety due to its high incidence on wild and captive animals. It is speculated that
the number of animals afflicted by this disease will increase in the near future. Importantly, deer share their
habitats with several other species, including humans. The potential of CWD prions to infect other animal
species is still controversial. The leading event thought to cause the CWD epidemic involves the accumulation
of infectious prions in environmental components. Prions have been shown to efficiently bind soil particles
while maintaining their infectious properties. The elimination of prions from urine, feces and saliva from
infected animals could be importantly participating in the spread of infectivity to the environment. We have
recently shown that prions can bind living plants with great efficiency. Prion-contaminated leaves or roots infect
experimental subjects with relatively short incubation periods. Interestingly, we have also shown that plants
can uptake prions from soil and transport them to aerial parts. Preliminary data show that other natural and
human-made surfaces can also bind and release prions in a material-specific manner. Importantly, prions
bound to several materials can promote disease only by contact. Finally we have shown that earthworms can
act as efficient disseminators of prion infectivity, either by attaching prions to their surfaces or by ingestion and
further excretion of contaminated soil particles. In this project, we plan to further assess the binding properties
of prions to soil, plants and earthworms. This will be achieved by using a wide variety of techniques
(radiolabeling, qPMCA and bioassays). In parallel, samples obtained from CWD affected premises will be
analyzed. We strongly believe that data obtained from these experiments will help us to understand the
mechanisms of natural CWD spread and help to design new regulations and guidelines to eradicate the CWD
agent from the environment.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9932345
- **Project number:** 5R01AI132695-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCI CTR HOUSTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Rodrigo Morales
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $533,130
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-06-01 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9932345

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9932345, Shedding, retention and spreading of chronic wasting disease prions in the environment (5R01AI132695-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9932345. Licensed CC0.

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