Location: Virus and Prion Research
Project Number: 5030-32000-228-021-N
Project Type: Non-Funded Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Oct 1, 2023
End Date: Oct 1, 2028
Objective:
This work covers three primary objectives:
1) Asses the binding of biochar to PrPSc, the causative agent of chronic wasting disease (CWD).
2) Evaluate the ability of biochar to inhibit or enhance the conversion of the normal prion protein (PrPC) to PrPSc.
3) Evaluate the affects of biochar on the infectivity of CWD prions.
Approach:
Evaluation of the potential of biochar to mitigate the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) will explore the binding of CWD prions to biochar will be assessed at several different levels. First, standard techniques to assess for the presence of CWD prions before and after exposure to biochar will be used to confirm binding. Second, biochar will be evaluated for the ability to inhibit or enhance the conversion of the normal prion protein to the disease associated conformation. Last, the affects of biochar on the infectivity of CWD prions will be evaluated.
