Prion News and Research

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Researchers win NIH grants for Alzheimer's research on Amish resilience and rapid onset

Researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have received two grant awards, in partnership with investigators from other institutions, from the National Institutes of Health to conduct major studies on Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of memory loss and other forms of dementia in older persons.

14 Dec 2017

Study points to possible targets for therapeutic intervention in the fight against ALS

Scientists at the University of Alberta may have found possible targets for therapeutic interventions in the fight against Lou Gehrig's disease.

1 Dec 2017

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease patients harbor infectious prions in their skin

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)- the human equivalent of mad cow disease- is caused by rogue, misfolded protein aggregates termed prions, which are infectious and cause fatal damages in the patient's brain. CJD patients develop signature microscopic sponge-like holes in their brains.

23 Nov 2017

Scientists detect pathological prion protein in skin of CJD patients

Researchers have found that it was possible to detect abnormal prion protein in the skin of 23 people who died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). They also found that exposing mice to skin tissue taken from the CJD patients caused them to develop prion disease.

23 Nov 2017

Scientists develop new method to study Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the lab

Scientists have developed a new system to study Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the laboratory, paving the way for research to find treatments for the fatal brain disorder.

20 Nov 2017

SBP researchers identify new protective function for brain protein genetically linked to Alzheimer's

Researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute have identified a new protective function for a brain protein genetically linked to Alzheimer's. The findings, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, could inform novel treatment strategies.

7 Nov 2017

New synthetic genetic tool measures and manipulates protein aggregation in live cells

A common thread ties seemingly unlinked disorders like Alzheimer's disease and type II diabetes together. This thread is known as protein aggregation and happens when proteins clump together. These complexes are a hallmark of many diseases but have recently been linked to beneficial functions as well.

20 Oct 2017

Study identifies novel molecular interactions that explain cognitive defects in Parkinson's disease

A study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, from Nature publishing group, describes the identification of a novel molecular pathway that can constitute a therapeutic target for cognitive defects in Parkinson's disease.

25 Sep 2017

Researchers discover important link between Parkinson's and prion diseases

Parkinson's disease and prion diseases are very different from each other as regards both origins and course. Nonetheless, a research group of SISSA's, headed by Professor Giuseppe Legname, has discovered an unexpected and important link between the two pathologies.

14 Sep 2017

Protein research could pave way to potential treatments for neurodegenerative diseases

Research carried out at the University of Kent has the potential to influence the future search for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases that are linked to a family of protein molecules known as 'amyloid'.

11 Sep 2017

New antibodies may halt key pathological mechanisms across several neurological diseases

A new kind of antibody targets a feature shared by proteins thought to cause the most damage in Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and related conditions, creating potential for a unified treatment approach.

29 Aug 2017

Scientists identify basic biological mechanism that kills neurons in ALS

A team led by scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Mayo Clinic has identified a basic biological mechanism that kills neurons in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and in a related genetic disorder, frontotemporal dementia (FTD), found in some ALS patients.

16 Aug 2017

Scientists reveal role of cellular prion protein in development of NF2-related tumors

New research published today, 10th July 2017, online in the journal Oncogene could offer hope to the thousands of, mainly young, people affected by the hereditary condition Neurofibromatosis 2 (NF2).

10 Jul 2017

New approaches to early detection of Parkinson's disease on the horizon

Detecting Parkinson's disease before non-reversible symptoms occur: New approaches to early detection are meant to ensure just that. They are based on detection of alpha-synuclein in the skin or intestines.

24 Jun 2017

Researchers examine formation of functional amyloids by bacteria in real time

A team of scientists from the VIB lab of Han Remaut and the lab of Yves Dufrêne at UCL Louvain-La-Neuve collaborated on a study of functional amyloids -protein aggregates with the typical amyloid structure that do not lead to disease but rather serve a dedicated biological function.

21 Jun 2017

Research suggests how malformed proteins linked to Parkinson’s could spread from the gut to the brain

Recent research on Parkinson's disease has focused on the gut-brain connection, examining patients' gut bacteria, and even how severing the vagus nerve connecting the stomach and brain might protect some people from the debilitating disease.

15 Jun 2017

Study unravels mystery of how nerve cells are damaged in neurodegenerative diseases

A new study has uncovered a molecular mechanism in the prion protein, a protein responsible for neurodegenerative diseases, which may explain why nerve cells degenerate in these disorders.

25 May 2017

New research shows how to prevent prions from growing into deadly diseases

Prion diseases are scary, incurable and fatal. They first gained notoriety when cows became infected by prion proteins and, in turn, infected people. Fervor surrounding mad cow disease resulted in the U.S. banning imports of beef from the European Union for 15 years.

21 Mar 2017

Structure of unique amyloid fibrils could lead to discovery of new antibiotics

The highly pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus bacteria is one of the five most common causes of hospital-acquired infections. In the US alone, approximately 500,000 patients at hospitals contract a staph infection. It is the bacteria responsible for MRSA, for which there is no vaccine.

24 Feb 2017

New detection method could lead to noninvasive diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

The detection of prions in the blood of patients with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease could lead to a noninvasive diagnosis prior to symptoms and a way to identify prion contamination of the donated blood supply, according to researchers at McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

22 Dec 2016