IFNB1 and scrapie: Those authors also concluded that “infectious prions, i.e., PK resistant PrPsc (PrP-res), cause the suppression of endogenous interferon expression.” However, recombinant IFN-β applied to their 22 l scrapie N2a-58 cells reduced PrP-res by 50% at 48 h, suggesting that the broad transcriptional effects of IFN-β peptide reduced PrP-res, not vice versa.