Changes in brain gene expression shared by scrapie and Alzheimer disease.

We have isolated two recombinant cDNAs whose corresponding RNAs have an increased abundance in scrapie-infected hamster brain. DNA sequence analysis has shown that these two recombinants represent the genes for sulfated glycoprotein 2 and transferrin. The abundance of sulfated glycoprotein 2 RNA is increased in hippocampus from patients with Alzheimer disease and Pick disease, whereas transferrin RNA is not strongly modulated in these conditions. Expression of two previously identified scrapie-modulated genes, encoding glial fibrillary acidic protein and metallothionein, is also increased in both of these neurodegenerative diseases.