Prion News and Research

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Ticks could be a new vector for chronic wasting disease

A new study from researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison finds that ticks can harbor transmissible amounts of the protein particle that causes Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), implicating the parasites as possible agents in the disease's spread between deer in Wisconsin. Her findings were published in the journal Nature.

7 Jul 2023

Ticks found to harbor and release prions of chronic wasting disease

Researchers determined whether ticks contain transmission-relevant amounts of chronic wasting disease.

17 May 2023

NQO2 gene as a novel potential target in Parkinson’s disease

A new study under review at the journal Scientific Reports and currently available on the Research Square* preprint server aimed to analyze the toxic effects of 6OHDA along with a related role of NQO2 in murine and human astrocytes.

23 Feb 2023

Researchers provide a framework for unifying and categorizing neurodegenerative diseases based on eight hallmarks

Researchers presented eight hallmarks of neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs), their in vivo biomarkers, and interactions to help categorize NDDs and specify patients within a specific NDD.

21 Feb 2023

Could trained scent-detection dogs be used for chronic wasting disease surveillance?

A recent study published in Prion investigated whether trained scent-detection dogs could be used for chronic wasting disease (CWD) surveillance.

13 Feb 2023

Study reveals sex differences in response to drugs targeting tauopathies

Microglia are cells that are central to both brain health as well as disease progression in many neurological conditions.

24 Jan 2023

Novel prion strain causes chronic wasting disease in a Finland moose

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19 Jan 2023

Research findings may offer a new potential therapeutic target for Alzheimer’s disease

A new study links a gene concentrated in the brain's cleanup cells, known as microglia, to the inflammation that has increasingly emerged as a key mechanism contributing to Alzheimer's disease.

30 Nov 2022

Brain changes can be studied in very early stages of neurodegenerative diseases

Many changes take place in the brain long before symptoms appear. This has been shown in mice in two studies of prion diseases in which the brain gradually deteriorates.

10 Oct 2022

NPDPSC at Case Western Reserve University to receive CDC funding for better understanding of prion diseases

The National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center at Case Western Reserve University will receive up to $20 million in funding as part of a grant renewal from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to better understand how and why prion diseases––degenerative brain conditions found in both humans and animals-;develop and spread.

20 Sep 2022

Study investigates link between plasma miRNAs and cognitive function among cognitively normal men

A new research paper was published on the cover of Aging (listed as "Aging (Albany NY)" by Medline/PubMed and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 14, Issue 17, entitled, "Extracellular microRNA and cognitive function in a prospective cohort of older men: The Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study."

15 Sep 2022

Exercise hormone irisin blocks Parkinson's-associated α-synuclein aggregation and related neuronal toxicity

A new paper discusses the hope held out by recent results on a compound called irisin, a short protein secreted by skeletal muscle that produces some exercise-related effects on the brain.

15 Sep 2022

Researchers uncover the structure of protein fibrils linked to hereditary form of human prion disease

In a new study, researchers from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have identified the structure of protein fibrils linked to a hereditary form of human prion disease.

12 Sep 2022

Prion imaging could lead to better understanding of what causes fatal neurological disorders

Prion diseases are incurable, deadly neurological disorders that can affect both humans and animals–including Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) in people, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (also known as Mad Cow Disease) and Chronic Wasting Disease found in deer.

13 Jul 2022

Montana’s Blackfeet tribe to use dogs to sniff out disease and contaminants

Kenneth Cook used a mallet and a chisel to crack into a pig's skull in the gravel driveway outside his home on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northwestern Montana.

30 Jun 2022

New insights into how NANOG protein facilitates the activation of human cell pluripotency

There are cells in the body known as pluripotent stem cells that are yet to specialize in a particular biological function.

28 Apr 2022

Novel optobiological system may shine light on protein aggregation in Parkinson's disease

A novel system to control protein aggregation in a model of Parkinson's disease may answer longstanding questions about how the disease begins and spreads, according to a new study published March 9th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Abid Oueslati of Laval University, Quebec, Canada, and colleagues.

23 Mar 2022