Figure 6: Prions generated in slice cultures are biologically active and OSCAR model can be adapted to non-cerebellar brain slice cultures.

(A) Efficient transmission of prions in slice cultures from serial passages shows comparable seeding activity between P1 and P2 slices. Traces are average of 3 technical replicates for each dilution. Additional dilutions were tested but only two seed concentrations (0.5 ng and 50 pg) shown here for brevity. Cerebellar slice cultures were prepared from Tga20 mice. Abbreviations: p1 = passage 1, WT slices treated with brain homogenate; p2 = passage 2, infected slice cultures harvested at 35 dpi, homogenized and used to treat fresh WT slice cultures). (B) Corticostriatal slice cultures were prepared from 11-day-old Tga20 pups in similar fashion as cerebellar slice cultures and maintained for 42 dpi before testing on RT-QuIC assay. The seeding activity from RT-QuIC traces demonstrates that the competence of seeding activity is highly dynamic and similar to seeds obtained from organotypic cerebellar slices.