

Dr. Joaquín Castilla is a Ikerbasque Research Professor incorporated at CIC bioGUNE in 2009. He has a long experience working in prions since 1998 at Center for Animal Health (CISA -INIA). In 2003, he moved to Switzerland to work as Research Scientist at Serono Research Institute. He became Assistant Professor this year, first at the University of Texas, Medical Branch and later at Scripps (Florida) from 2006 leading an independent group. His expertise is based on in vitro and in vivo replication of prions. Particularly, his group is studying the strain and species barrier phenomena in a cell-free system, trying to dissect the molecular mechanisms by which prions propagate and focusing on new anti-prion therapeutic approaches.
The most important achievements of his group are: i) development of the most sensitive method for prion detection, ii) generation of prion infectivity in a test tube contributing to validate the “protein-only” hypothesis. Iii) prion detection in blood for the first time in pre-symptomatic and symptomatic animals and iv) confirmation that the in vitro prion propagation faithfully mimicked the three major phenomena governing transmissible spongiform diseases: infectivity, strain concept and transmission barrier.
Dr. Joaquín Castilla has extensive experience in European Community, NIH (USA) and other national projects. His group has over 20 active collaborations both in Europe and outside the European Union with the most prestigious groups in the prion field. He is a member of the Journal Veterinary Research editorial board and review for dozens of international journals as The EMBO J., Neuron, Nature, among others. He has supervised 14 doctoral theses and currently leads/co-leads another 6 thesis in preparation.
Dr Castilla has published more than 110 peer reviewed articles (H index: 39 – Times cited: 5702 – Cumulative Impact Factor: ~755) which many of them have been instrumental for understanding the molecular mechanisms for prion propagation.
Publons: J-8414-2019. Scopus: 8851950500.
Latest Publications
2021
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2009
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are fatal neurodegenerative disorders affecting both humans and animals. TSEs can be of genetic, sporadic or infectious origin. The infectious agent associated with TSEs, termed prion, appears to consist of a single protein, an abnormal conformer (PrPSc) of a natural host protein (PrPC), which propagates by converting host PrPC into a replica of itself. One of the characteristics of prions is their ability to infect some species and not others. This phenomenon is known as transmission barrier. Interestingly, prions occur in the form of different strains that show distinct biological and physicochemical properties, even though they are encoded by PrP with the same amino acid sequence, albeit in presumably different conformations. In general, the transmission barrier is expressed by an incomplete attack rate and long incubation times (time from the animal inoculation until the onset of the clinical signs) which become shorter after serial inoculation passages. Compelling evidence indicates that the transmission barriers are closely related to differences in PrP amino acid sequences between the donor and recipients of infection, as well as the prion strain conformation. Unfortunately, the molecular basis of the transmission barrier phenomenon and its relationship to prion strain conformations is currently unknown and we cannot predict the degree of a species barrier simply by comparing the prion proteins from two species.
We have conducted a series of experiments using the Protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification (PMCA) technique that mimics in vitro some of the fundamental steps involved in prion replication in vivo, albeit with accelerated kinetics. The in vitro generated prions possess key prion features, i.e., they are infectious in vivo and maintain their strain specificity. We have used PMCA to efficiently replicate a variety of prion strains from, among others, mice, hamsters, bank voles, deer, cattle, sheep, and humans. The correlation between in vivo data and our in vitro results suggest that PMCA is a valuable tool for assessing the strength of the transmission barriers between diverse species and for different prion strains; we are using the method to determine which amino acids in the PrPC sequence contribute to the strength of the transmission barrier. These studies are proving very useful in evaluating the potential risks to humans and animals, of not only established prion strains, but also new (atypical) strains. For example, while classical sheep scrapie is unable to cross the human transmission barrier in vitro, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) propagated in sheep does so efficiently. In addition, we have also generated prions that are infectious to species hitherto considered to be resistant to prion disease.
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Hasier Eraña
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Carlos Miguel Diaz Dominguez
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Mirta García Martínez
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Jorge Moreno Charco
TECHNICIANS / DOCTORAL CANDIDATES -
Cristina Sampedro Torres-Quevedo
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Josu Galarza Ahumada
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Patricia Piñeiro
Members
POST DOCTORAL RESEARCHERLatest Publications
Analysis of a large case series of fatal familial insomnia to determine tests with the highest diagnostic value
Kortazar-Zubizarreta, I;Erana, H;Pereda, A;Charco, JM;Manero-Azua, A;Ruiz-Onandi, R;Aguirre, U;Gonzalez-Chinchon, G;de Nanclares, GP;Castilla, J
JOURNAL OF NEUROPATHOLOGY AND EXPERIMENTAL NEUROLOGY
2022-12-02
Bona fide atypical scrapie faithfully reproduced for the first time in a rodent model
Vidal, E;Sanchez-Martin, MA;Erana, H;Lazaro, SP;Perez-Castro, MA;Otero, A;Charco, JM;Marin, B;Lopez-Moreno, R;Diaz-Dominguez, CM;Geijo, M;Ordonez, M;Cantero, G;di Bari, M;Lorenzo, NL;Pirisinu, ...
ACTA NEUROPATHOLOGICA COMMUNICATIONS
2022-12-13
Glycans are not necessary to maintain the pathobiological features of bovine spongiform encephalopathy
Otero, A;Barrio, T;Erana, H;Charco, JM;Betancor, M;Diaz-Dominguez, CM;Marin, B;Andreoletti, O;Torres, JM;Kong, QZ;Badiola, JJ;Bolea, R;Castilla, J
PLOS PATHOGENS
2022-10-01
Description of the first Spanish case of Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease with A117V variant: clinical, histopathological and biochemical characterization
Erana, H;San Millan, B;Diaz-Dominguez, CM;Charco, JM;Rodriguez, R;Vieitez, I;Pereda, A;Yanez, R;Geijo, M;Navarro, C;de Nanclares, GP;Teijeira, S;Castilla, J
JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY
2022-03-16
Biosemiotics comprehension of PrP code and prion disease
Coca, JR;Erana, H;Castilla, J
BIOSYSTEMS
2021-12-01
Homozygous R136S mutation in PRNP gene causes inherited early onset prion disease
Ximelis, T;Marin-Moreno, A;Espinosa, JC;Erana, H;Charco, JM;Hernandez, I;Riveira, C;Alcolea, D;Gonzalez-Roca, E;Aldecoa, I;Molina-Porcel, L;Parchi, P;Rossi, M;Castilla, J;Ruiz-Garcia, R;Gelpi, ...
ALZHEIMERS RESEARCH & THERAPY
2021-10-18
Cerebrospinal Fluid and Plasma Small Extracellular Vesicles and miRNAs as Biomarkers for Prion Diseases
Lopez-Perez, O;Sanz-Rubio, D;Hernaiz, A;Betancor, M;Otero, A;Castilla, J;Andreoletti, O;Badiola, JJ;Zaragoza, P;Bolea, R;Toivonen, JM;Martin-Burriel, I
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
2021-07-01
Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease with extremely long 14-year survival period
Kortazar-Zubizarreta, I;Ruiz-Onandi, R;Pereda, A;Vado, Y;Gonzalez-Chinchon, G;Erana, H;de Nanclares, GP;Castilla, J
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY
2021-06-26
Improving the Pharmacological Properties of Ciclopirox for Its Use in Congenital Erythropoietic Porphyria
Bernardo-Seisdedos, G;Charco, JM;SanJuan, I;Garcia-Martinez, S;Urquiza, P;Erana, H;Castilla, J;Millet, O
JOURNAL OF PERSONALIZED MEDICINE
2021-06-01
Detection of chronic wasting disease in mule and white-tailed deer by RT-QuIC analysis of outer ear
Ferreira, NC;Charco, JM;Plagenz, J;Orru, CD;Denkers, ND;Metrick, MA;Hughson, AG;Griffin, KA;Race, B;Hoover, EA;Castilla, J;Nichols, TA;Miller, MW;Caughey, B
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
2021-04-08