A
research development reveals natural mechanism in brain cells that protects
against “molecular piracy” of deadly neurological diseases.
Prion
diseases lead to incurable neurodegenerative disorders such as
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, mad cow disease (bovine spongiform
encephalopathy) and chronic wasting disease in deer and elk.
Research,
published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, stemmed from two largely
unexplained factors for prion infections: their long incubation periods of up
to five decades, and a noted time discrepancy between the accumulation of the
misfolded rogue prion protein in the brain and when the disease actually shows
symptoms.
In
probing these mysteries, Westaway, U of A post-doctoral fellow Charles E. Mays,
associate professor Jiri Safar of Case Western Reserve University and other
international collaborating researchers began two years ago to study a molecule
called the “shadow” of the prion protein. Significant changes in this shadow
protein have directed researchers to examine the normal prion protein itself.
Posted by Tim Sandle
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