Prion News and Research

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Genesis bioventures announces worldwide distribution rights for rapid prion-detection technology

Genesis Bioventures, Inc. has announced that the Company has signed exclusive worldwide sales, marketing and distribution agreements with Prion Developmental Laboratories Inc. (PDL) to commercialize the recently patented Rapid Prion-Detection Assay tests developed by PDL.

7 Feb 2006

Mad cow proteins also maintain stem cells

What do mad cow disease and stem cell research have in common? Whitehead Institute scientists have found that the same protein that causes neurodegenerative conditions such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) is also important for helping certain adult stem cells maintain themselves.

7 Feb 2006

Prion protein codon 129 genotype prevalence is altered in primary progressive aphasia

Most people with a rare type of dementia called primary progressive aphasia (PPA) have a specific combination of prion gene variants, a new study shows.

28 Nov 2005

Chronic Wasting Disease in deer and humans

Researchers at Binghamton University have a first-ever opportunity to determine if Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in deer can be spread to humans who ingest "infected" meat.

26 Nov 2005

Resveratrol effective in lowering amyloid-beta peptides

A study published in the November 11 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry shows that resveratrol, a compound found in grapes and red wine, lowers the levels of the amyloid-beta peptides which cause the telltale senile plaques of Alzheimer's disease.

7 Nov 2005

Protein involved in 'mad cow' disease

The journal Brain Research has recently published the results of research work by scientists from the University of Navarra.

18 Oct 2005

Prions rapidly 'remodel' good protein into bad

Two Brown Medical School biologists have figured out the fate of healthy protein when it comes in contact with the infectious prion form in yeast: The protein converts to the prion form, rendering it infectious. In an instant, good protein goes bad.

19 Sep 2005

Scientists characterize the most infectious prion protein particles

A new study of prions - apparently malformed proteins that initiate deadly brain diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans - has yielded surprising information about how the size of prions relates to their infectivity.

10 Sep 2005

Adlyfe receives award from the development of blood test for animal prion diseases

Adlyfe, Inc., a privately held biotech company headquartered in Rockville, MD, focused on early diagnostics for animal and human brain diseases announced the award today of a $650,000 two year grant from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in the UK for continued development of a sensitive early blood test for animal prion diseases.

7 Sep 2005

New method can detect 'mad cow' proteins in blood

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) have found a way to detect the malformed proteins in blood that cause "mad cow disease".

29 Aug 2005

Six possible cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Idaho sets alarm bells ringing

According to Idaho officials one case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease has been confirmed, and they are investigating five other suspected cases in the state.

14 Aug 2005

New surgical cleaning process reduces risk of vCJD

Scientists say a new cleaning process will reduce the risk of hospital transmission of the human form of mad cow disease.

4 Aug 2005

New clues for the understanding of dementia

Researchers at the Medical Research Council MRC Prion Unit and the Department of Neurodegenerative Disease at the Institute of Neurology, University College London - in collaboration with groups from Copenhagen, Aarhus, Lund and Cambridge - have identified a gene that, when mutated, causes an early onset dementia.

24 Jul 2005

Research opens up new directions for studying prion diseases in humans

The mysterious, highly infectious prions, which cause the severe destruction of the brain that characterizes "mad cow disease" and several human brain degenerative disorders, can be rendered harmless in the laboratory by a slight alternation of the three-dimensional conformation or shape of the prion protein's structure.

9 Jun 2005

Fundamental insights in how amyloid fibers form

Amyloid fibers are best known as the plaque that gunks up neurons in people with neurodegenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer's and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease--the human analog of mad cow disease.

9 Jun 2005

Novel insights into how prion and other neurodegenerative diseases develop

Abnormal prion proteins are little understood disease agents involved in causing horrific brain-wasting diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease in people, mad cow disease in cattle and chronic wasting disease in deer and elk.

3 Jun 2005

Genesis Bioventures signs agreement for control of Mad Cow diagnostic company

Further to a Letter of Intent previously reported, Genesis Bioventures today announced that it has entered into a binding agreement with Efoora Inc. and Prion Developmental Laboratories, Inc. to buy all of Efoora's majority interest shares owned or pledged in PDL thereby gaining controlling interest of PDL. A Form 8-K has been filed with the SEC in this regard. Prior to the Agreement, GBI had one-third equity interest in PDL.

1 Jun 2005

Scientists watch agents of brain-wasting diseases invade and move within brain cells

Scientists for the first time have watched agents of brain-wasting diseases, called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), as they invade a nerve cell and then travel along wire-like circuits to points of contact with other cells.

25 May 2005

Premature use of stem cell therapy could put patients at risk

The premature use of stem cell therapy could put many patients at risk of viral or prion diseases unless appropriate safety systems are in place, warn experts in this week’s BMJ.

19 May 2005

Faulty folding of protein in the environment may cause disease

Serious diseases like Alzheimer's and type-2 diabetes have been shown to be related to unhealthy protein chains that occur when proteins fold incorrectly. In an article in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, PNAS, a research team directed from Uppsala University shows that similar protein chains in our environment may hasten the process.

4 May 2005