Prion News and Research

RSS

Scientists discover ‘Big Bang’ of Alzheimer's disease

Scientists have discovered a "Big Bang" of Alzheimer's disease - the precise point at which a healthy protein becomes toxic but has not yet formed deadly tangles in the brain.

11 Jul 2018

Microglia may play key role in slowing progression of prion diseases, research suggests

Prion diseases are slow degenerative brain diseases that occur in people and various other mammals. No vaccines or treatments are available, and these diseases are almost always fatal. Scientists have found little evidence of a protective immune response to prion infections.

17 May 2018

Researchers detect CWD prions in Wisconsin soils for the first time

New research out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has, for the first time, detected prions responsible for chronic wasting disease (CWD) in samples taken from sites where deer congregate.

4 May 2018

The Truth Behind Donating Your Body to a Medical School

Cambridge University is one of a decreasing number of medical schools where undergraduates learn anatomy primarily through hands-on dissection. Cecilia Brassett, a Clinical Anatomist at The University of Cambridge, discusses her thoughts on the recent rise in donations and explains how the donors are used to train medical students.

27 Apr 2018

Study finds no evidence of chronic wasting disease transmissibility in macaques

Chronic wasting disease did not cross the species barrier to infect cynomolgus macaque monkeys during a lengthy investigation by National Institutes of Health scientists exploring risks to humans.

26 Apr 2018

Mice study illustrates potential risks associated with prion transmission

Familial human prion diseases are passed within families and are associated with 34 known prion protein mutations.

9 Mar 2018

TSRI research offers explanation for why neurons die off in Parkinson's disease

An estimated 10 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson's disease--an incurable neurodegenerative disorder that leads to an increasing loss of motor control.

6 Mar 2018

Plymouth researcher receives grant to further investigate causes of hereditary neuro-tumors

The University of Plymouth will be continuing its research into the advancement of neuro-tumor treatments thanks to more than £100,000 from Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity and Sparks, the medical research charity.

5 Mar 2018

Amyloid protein may be transmitted through neurosurgical instruments, study suggests

Amyloid beta pathology - protein deposits in the brain - might have been transmitted by contaminated neurosurgical instruments, suggests a new UCL-led study.

15 Feb 2018

NIH scientists modify new RT-QuIC assay to detect Parkinson's, dementia with Lewy bodies

National Institutes of Health scientists developing a rapid, practical test for the early diagnosis of prion diseases have modified the assay to offer the possibility of improving early diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies.

9 Feb 2018

‘Sushi-like’ nanodiscs provide structural snapshots of misfolding proteins

When proteins misfold, accumulate and clump around insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, they kill cells. Now, researchers, including University of Michigan biophysicists, have obtained a structural snapshot of these proteins when they are most toxic, detailing them down to the atomic level.

15 Dec 2017

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