Latest prions Stories
Thin-billed prions select their molting grounds individuallyNot only land birds, but also some seabirds, cover enormous distances during migration: the sooty shearwater, for example, circumnavigates the earth one and a half times on its travels. Despite this, relatively little is known about the migratory behavior of seabirds as compared with that of their land-living counterparts. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology have studied the migratory behavior of thin-billed...
Study in mice may offer clues for treating Alzheimer's diseaseNational Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists investigating how prion diseases destroy the brain have observed a new form of the disease in mice that does not cause the sponge-like brain deterioration typically seen in prion diseases. Instead, it resembles a form of human Alzheimer's disease, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, that damages brain arteries.The study results, reported by NIH scientists at the National Institute of Allergy...
Prions are a special class of proteins best known as the source for mad cow and other neurodegenerative diseases. Despite this negative reputation, according to a new report in the February 5th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, a prion may also have important and very positive roles in brain function. The researchers suggest that a prion-like protein may participate in memory in higher eukaryotes, from sea slugs on up."The persistence of memory is a fundamental...
Scientists have determined how a normal protein can be converted into a prion, an infectious agent that causes fatal brain diseases in humans and mammals.The finding, in mice, is expected to advance the understanding of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, or TSEs, a family of neurodegenerative diseases that include Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, kuru and fatal familial insomnia in humans, scrapie in sheep, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle, also known as "mad cow disease."...
A new fast-acting disinfectant that is effective against bacteria, viruses, fungi and prions could help to reduce the spread of deadly infections in hospitals, according to research published in the February issue of Journal of General Virology.Researchers from the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, Germany have optimized a rapid-acting, practical formula for disinfecting surgical instruments. The treatment works against a wide range of pathogens, including those that tolerate ordinary...
Research may point to more effective therapeutic targets for deadly prion diseasesScientists from The Scripps Research Institute have determined for the first time that prions, bits of infectious protein devoid of DNA or RNA that can cause fatal neurodegenerative disease, are capable of Darwinian evolution.The study from Scripps Florida in Jupiter shows that prions can develop large numbers of mutations at the protein level and, through natural selection, these mutations can eventually bring...
A new treatment route for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and its human form Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (CJD) could be a step closer based on new results from scientists at the University of Leeds. The team has found that a protein called Glypican-1 plays a key role in the development of BSE. Details are published November 20 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens.BSE, commonly known as mad cow disease, is known to be caused by an infectious and abnormal form of the prion protein...
Researchers said on Wednesday that villagers in the highlands of Papua New Guinea who ritualistically ate human brains but did not die of a brain disease called kuru have a genetic mutation that protects them, Reuters reported.The study, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, said the unusual cannibalistic practice shows evolution in real time in the human population, and might lead to a treatment for similar brain-wasting conditions.Entire generations of women in remote Papuan...
May Promote Prion-Dependent DiseasesThe regulating protein Srebp2 drives cholesterol formation, which prions need for their propagation, in prion-infected neuronal cells. With these findings, published in the current issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, scientists of Helmholtz Zentrum München and Technische Universität München anticipate new approaches in drug development to combat prion infection.Prions are causing fatal and infectious diseases of the nervous system, such...
Specific cells within the immune system could help explain why younger people are more susceptible to variant CJD, scientists believeSpecific cells within the immune system could help explain why younger people are more susceptible to variant CJD, scientists believe.Patients diagnosed with variant CJD are, on average, 28 years old but it has been unclear why older people are not as affected by the disease.Research at The Roslin Institute of the University of Edinburgh has identified specific...
