Important step toward pharmacologic development of treatment for prion diseases

A team of researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have identified a mechanism that can prevent the normal prion protein from changing its molecular shape into the abnormal form responsible for neurodegenerative diseases. This finding, published in the journal Cell Reports, offers new hope in the battle against a foe that until now has always proved fatal. Prion diseases include Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease and fatal familial insomnia. Unlike other transmissible diseases, the infectious agent is not a virus or bacteria, but an abnormally shaped prion protein...
Source: Health News from Medical News Today - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: CJD / vCJD / Mad Cow Disease Source Type: news