To validate a functional role for syntaxin-6 in prion-related phenotypes in cellular models and investigate its mechanistic role, we stably knocked down Stx6 in the prion-susceptible PK1 neuroblastoma cell line [26] by ~ 85–90% in multiple independent cell lines, relative to cell lines expressing a non-silencing control (NSC) scrambled shRNA (Supplementary Fig. 1a–b in supplementary file 2). This evidence concerns the gene STX6 and neuroblastoma.