Dr. Juan Maria Torres

Scientific researcher at CISA-INIA

Datos básicos

Nombre: Dr. Juan Maria Torres

About me: Scientific researcher at CISA-INIA

Phone: +34 916202300

Localization: Valdeolmos, Madrid, Spain

Research lines

Estudy of the molecular and celular elements involved in prion replication and transmission between different species. The research incude three lines of work:

i) Development of bioassay of high sensitivity for prion detection and diagnosis

ii) Study of the elements involved in prion replication and pathogenesis

iii) Study of the different prion strains in the different species and its capability of transmission to human.

Ongoing projects
  1. RTA2012-00004. Evaluación del potencial zoonótico de la diversidad de cepas de priones circulantes en las especies ganaderas (01/2013 - 12/2015). 
  2. FP7 ERA-NET EMIDA 219235.   Towards breeding of goats for genetically determined TSEs resistance (01/09/2012 - 31/08/2015).
  3.  AGL-2012-37988-C04-04. Disección in vitro e in vivo de los mecanismos moleculares implicados en la replicación de los priones superando barreras de transmisión existentes en la naturaleza (01/2013 - 12/2015).
  4. UK Food Safety Agency (FSA)-M03043. Exploring Permeability of human species barrier to circulating TSE agent (02/2014 - 01/2018).
  5. EVD-BVET (Switzerland). Truncated prion protein fragments in healthy and BSE diseased cattle: interference with laboratory diagnosis and disease control (01/2014 - 01/2016)
  6. AllianceBiosecure Foundation. Slice culture Assay For Express CJD agent Detection in blood and other biological products (SAFE CJD)(01/2014 - 12/2015).
  7. AllianceBiosecure Foundation. “Study of the zoonotic potential of the diversity of prions circulating in livestock ruminants using transgenic mouse models” (01/01/2015 - 31/12/2017).
  8. CON012-034. Evaluación de la capacidad de eliminación de la infectividad de los agentes causantes de EETs de la etapa de nanofiltración en el proceso de producción de  fibrinógeno.
  9. CON14-004. EVALUACIÓN DE LA CAPACIDAD DE ELIMINACIÓN DE LA INFECTIVIDAD DE LOS AGENTES CAUSANTES DE EETs DE LA ETAPA DE CROMATOGRAFÍA DE INTERCAMBIO IÓNICO (DEAE CELULOSA) DE LOS PROCESOS DE PRODUCCIÓN DE PROFILNINE®SD Y ALPHANINE®SD.
  10. CON14-043. TESTING DECONTAMINATION PROCEDURES AGAINST PRION INFECTIVITY.
Publications (Last 5 years)
  1. Juan-Carlos Espinosa, María-Eugenia Herva, Olivier Andréoletti, Danielle Padilla, Caroline Lacroux, Hervé Cassard, Isabelle Lantier and Juan-María Torres. Transgenic Mice Expressing Porcine Prion Protein Resistant to Classical Scrapie but Susceptible to Sheep Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy and Atypical Scrapie. Emerging Infectious Diseases 15 (8):1214-1221 (2009).
  2. Alejandra Rangel, Noelia Madroñal, Agnès Gruart, Rosalina Gavín,, Franc Llorens, Lauro Sumoy, Juan María Torres, José María Delgado-García, José Antonio Del Río. Regulation of GABAA and Glutamate receptor expression, synaptic facilitation and long-term potentiation in the hippocampus of prion mutant mice. PLoS ONE  4 (10), e7592 (2009).
  3. Morales M, Ramírez MA, Cano MJ, Párraga M, Castilla J, Pérez-Ordoyo LI, Torres JM,       Bárcena J. Genome comparison of a nonpathogenic myxoma virus field strain with its ancestor, the virulent Lausanne strain. J. Virol. 83(5):2397-403 (2009).
  4. Carme Costa, Raul Tortosa, Enric Vidal, Danielle Padilla, Juan María Torres, Isidre Ferrer, Martí Pumarola, Anna Bassols. Central nervous system extracellular matrix changes in a transgenic mouse model of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Veterinay Journal  182(2): 306-314 (2009).
  5. Herva ME, Relano-Ginés A, Villa A, Torres, J.M. Prion infection of differentiated neurospheres. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 188(2):270–275 (2010)
  6. Féraudet-Tarisse C, Andréoletti O, Morel N, Simon S, Lacroux C, Mathey J, Lamourette P, Relaño A, Torres, J.M, Créminon C, Grassi J. Immunotherapeutic effect of anti-PrP monoclonal antibodies in transmissible spongiform encephalopathy mouse models: pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics analysis. J Gen Virol. 91(6):1635-45 (2010).
  7.  Zou WQ, Puoti G, Xiao X, Yuan J, Qing L, Cali I, Shimoji M, Langeveld JP, Castellani R, Notari S, Crain B, Schmidt RE, Geschwind M, Dearmond SJ, Cairns NJ, Dickson D, Honig L, Torres, J.M, Mastrianni J, Capellari S, Giaccone G, Belay ED, Schonberger LB, Cohen M, Perry G, Kong Q, Parchi P, Tagliavini F, Gambetti P. Variably protease-sensitive prionopathy: A new sporadic disease of the prion protein. Ann Neurol. 68(2):162-72 (2010).
  8.  Larska M, Polak MP, Zmudzinski JF, Torres, J.M. Comparison of mRNA expression levels of selected genes in the brain stem of cattle naturally infected with classical and atypical BSE. Brain Res. 1351:13-22 (2010).
  9. Baron T, Vulin J, Biacabe AG, Lakhdar L, Verchere J, Torres, J.M, Bencsik A. Emergence of classical BSE strain properties during serial passages of H-BSE in wild-type mice. Plos One 6(1), e15839 (2011).
  10. Padilla D, Béringue V, Espinosa JC, Andreoletti O, Jaumain E, Reine F, Herzog F, Gutiérrez-Adan A, Pintado B,  Laude H and Torres, J.M. Sheep and Goat BSE Propagate More Efficiently than Cattle BSE in Human PrP Transgenic Mice. Plos Pathogens 7(3) e1001319 (2011).
  11. Juan María Torres, Olivier Andréoletti, Caroline Lacroux, Irene Prieto, Patricia Lorenzo, Magdalena Larska, Thierry Baron and Juan Carlos Espinosa. Classical Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy by Transmission of H-Type Prion in Homologous Prion Protein Context. Emerging Infectious Diseases 17(9): 1636-1644 (2011).
  12. Aroa Relaño-Ginés, Sylvain Lehmann, Anna Bencsik, María Eugenia Herva, Juan María Torres and Carole Crozet. Stem cell therapy extends incubation and survival time in prion infected mice in a time window-dependant manner.  Journal of Infectious Diseases 204: 1038-1045 (2011).
  13. Tortosa R, Castells X, Vidal E, Costa C, Ruiz de Villa Mdel C, Sánchez A, Barceló A, Torres, J.M, Pumarola M, Ariño J. Central nervous system gene expression changes in a transgenic mouse model for bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Veterinary Research, 42:109 (2011).
  14. Ramon A. Juste, Juan M. Torres, Dirk J. Houwers. Epidemiological indication for a role of sheep in the emergence of variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. Veterinary Microbiology. Vet Microbiol. 27;154(3-4):422-4 (2012).
  15. Bribián A, Fontana X, Llorens F, Gavín R, Reina M, García-Verdugo JM, Torres, J.M, de Castro F, del Río JA.  Role of the cellular prion protein in oligodendrocyte precursor cell proliferation and differentiation in the developing and adult mouse CNS. PLoS One.7(4):e33872 (2012).
  16. Maluquer de Motes C, Espinosa JC, Esteban A, Calvo M, Girones R, Torres, J.M. Persistence of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy infectious agent in sewage. Environ. Res. 117:1-7 (2012).
  17. Vidal E, Tortosa R, Marco P, Fondevila D, Rabanal RM, Torres, J.M, Pumarola M. Late Stage Cathepsin C, CXCL13 and Ki-67 Overexpression Correlate with Regional Neuropathology in a BSE Transgenic Murine Model. J. Comp. Path. 148: 22-32  (2013).
  18. Edgar Holznagel, Barbara Yutzy, Walter Schulz-Schaeffer, Carina Kruip, Uwe Hahmann, Pär Bierke, Juan-María Torres, Yong-Sun Kim, Gerhard Hunsmann, and Johannes Loewer Foodborne transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy to nonhuman primates. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 19(5): 712-720 (2013).
  19. Pradines E, Hernandez-Rapp J, Villa-Diaz A, Dakowski C, Ardila-Osorio H, Haik S, Schneider B, Launay JM, Kellermann O, Torres, J.M, Mouillet-Richard S. Pathogenic prions deviate PrP(C) signaling in neuronal cells and impair A-beta clearance. Cell Death and Disease. 4, e456 (2013). doi:10.1038/cddis.2012.195.
  20. Emmanuel E. Comoy, Jacqueline Mikol, Marie-Madeleine Ruchoux, Valerie Durand, Sophie Luccantoni-Freire, Capucine Dehen, Evelyne Correia, Cristina Casalone, Juergen A. Richt, Justin Greenlee, Juan María Torres, Paul Brown, Jean-Philippe Deslys. Evaluation of the zoonotic potential of transmissible mink encephalopathy. Pathogens 2: 520-532 (2013).
  21. Vidal E, Fernández-Borges N, Pintado B, Ordóñez M, Márquez M, Fondevila D, Torres, J.M, Pumarola M, Castilla J. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy induces misfolding of alleged prion-resistant species cellular prion protein without altering its pathobiological features. J Neurosci. 33(18):7778-86 (2013).
  22. Vidal E, Fernández-Borges N, Pintado B, Ordóñez M, Márquez M, Fondevila D, Eraña H, Torres JM, Pumarola M, Castilla J. Exploring the risks of a putative transmission of BSE to new species. Prion 7:6, 443–446 (2013).
  23. Ordóñez-Gutiérrez L, Torres, J.M, Gavín R, Antón M, Arroba-Espinosa AI, Espinosa JC, Vergara C, Del Río JA, Wandosell F. Cellular prion protein modulates β-amyloid deposition in aged APP/PS1 transgenic mice. Neurobiology of Aging. 34(12):2793-804 (2013).
  24. Llorens F, Carulla P, Villa A, Torres, J.M, Fortes P, Ferrer I, Del Río JA. PrP(C) regulates epidermal growth factor receptor function and cell shape dynamics in Neuro2a cells. J. Neurochemistry 127(1):124-38 (2013).
  25. Jacobs, JG ; Lantier, F; Andreoletti, O; Barillet, F; Acin, C; Goldmann, W; Sklaviadis, T; Fast, C; Acutis, PL; Simon, S; Torres, JM; Keulen, LV; Bossers, A; Gonzalez, L; Nonno, R; Langeveld, J. Homogenous PrPres pattern in experimentally BSE-infected goat brains of different genotypes allows differentiation from natural goat scrapie types. PRION. 7S: 22-22 (May 2013).
  26. Juan-María Torres, Joaquín Castilla, Belén Pintado, Alfonso Gutiérrez-Adan, Olivier Andréoletti, Patricia Aguilar-Calvo, Ana-Isabel Arroba, Beatriz Parra-Arrondo, Isidro Ferrer, Jorge Manzanares, and Juan-Carlos Espinosa. Spontaneous Generation of Infectious Prion Disease in Transgenic Mice. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 19 (12), 1938-1946 (2013).
  27. Marco-Salazar P, Márquez M, Fondevila D, Rabanal RM, Torres JM, Pumarola M, Vidal E. Mapping of  Neurotrophins and their Receptors in the Adult Mouse Brain and their Role in the Pathogenesis of a Transgenic Murine Model of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. J. Comp. Path. 150, 449-462 (2014). 
  28. Aguilar-Calvo P, Espinosa JC, Pintado B, Gutiérrez-Adán A, Alamillo E, Miranda  A, Prieto I, Andreoletti O, Torres JM. Role of the goat K222-PrPC polymorphic variant in prion infection resistance. J. Virol. 88(5): 2670-2676 (2014).
  29. Caroline Lacroux, Cécile Perrin-Chauvineau, Fabien Corbière, Naima Aron, Patricia Aguilar-Calvo, Juan Maria Torres, Pierrette Costes, Isabelle Brémaud, Séverine. Lugan, François.Schelcher, Francis Barillet and Olivier Andréoletti. Genetic resistance to Scrapie infection in experimentally challenged goats. J. Virol. 88(5):2406-2413 (2014). DOI: 10.1128/JVI.02872-13.
  30. Jean Yves Douet, Saima Zafar, Armand Perret Liaudet, Caroline Lacroux, Séverine Lugan, Naima Aron, Herve Cassard, Claudia Ponto, Fabien Corbière, Juan Maria Torres, Inga Zerr, Olivier Andreoletti. Detection of infectivity in the blood of vCJD and sCJD affected patients. Emerging Infectious Diseases 20(1):114-7 (2014). doi: 10.3201/eid2001.130353.
  31. Torres J-M, Espinosa J-C, Aguilar-Calvo P, Herva M-E, Relaño-Ginés A, Villa, M. Morales, B. Parra, E. Alamillo, A. Brun, J. Castilla, S. Molina, , S.A.C. Hawkins and O. Andreoletti. Elements Modulating the Prion Species Barrier and Its Passage Consequences. PLoS ONE 9(3): e89722 (2014). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0089722.
  32. D. Simon, Mª E. Herva, M.J. Benitez, J.J. Garrido, A.I. Rojo , A. Cuadrado , J.M. Torres  and F.Wandosell. Dysfunction of PI3K-Akt-GSK3 pathway is a common feature of cell cultureand in vivo prion models. Neuropathol Appl Neurobiol. 40(3):311-26 (2014). doi: 10.1111/nan.12066.
  33. Notari S, Xiao X, Espinosa JC, Cohen Y, Qing L, Aguilar-Calvo P, Kofskey D, Cali I, Cracco L, Kong Q, Torres JM, Zou W, Gambetti P. Transmission characteristics of variably protease-sensitive prionopathy. Emerg Infect Dis 20(12):2006-14 (2014). doi: 10.3201/eid2012.140548.
  34. Levavasseur E, Privat N, Martin JC, Simoneau S, Baron T, Flan B, Torres JM, Haïk S. Molecular modeling of prion transmission to humans. Viruses  2;6(10):3766-77 (2014). doi: 10.3390/v6103766.
  35. Aguilar-Calvo P, García C, Espinosa JC, Andreoletti O, Torres JM. Prion and prion-like diseases in animals. Virus Res. 2014 Nov 29. pii: S0168-1702(14)00501-2. doi: 10.1016/j.virusres.2014.11.026.
  36. Hervé Cassard, Juan-Maria Torres, Caroline Lacroux, Jean-Yves Douet, Sylvie L. Benestad, Frédéric Lantier, Séverine Lugan, Isabelle Lantier, Pierrette Costes, Naima Aron, Fabienne Reine, Laetitia Herzog, Juan-Carlos Espinosa, Vincent Beringue, Olivier Andréoletti. Evidence for zoonotic potential of ovine scrapie prions. Nature communications 5:5821 (16-12-2014). doi:10.1038/ncomms6821