Prion Disease News and Research

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Aminothiazoles as therapeutic leads for prion diseases

Scientists who examined more than 10,000 chemical compounds during the last year in search of potential new drugs for a group of untreatable brain diseases, are reporting that one substance shows unusual promise.

24 Feb 2011

Researchers identify normal movement mechanisms of PrPC in brain

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified the motors that move non-infectious prion proteins (PrPC) - found within many mammalian cells - up and down long, neuronal transport pathways.

18 Feb 2011

Airborne prions can induce mad cow disease: Research

Airborne prions are also infectious and can induce mad cow disease or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disorder. This is the surprising conclusion of researchers at the University of Zurich, the University Hospital Zurich and the University of Tübingen. They recommend precautionary measures for scientific labs, slaughterhouses and animal feed plants.

14 Jan 2011

Plasminogen may serve as new target to treat prion diseases

Scientists at the University of Kentucky have discovered that plasminogen, a protein used by the body to break up blood clots, speeds up the progress of prion diseases such as mad cow disease.

11 Jan 2011

NIAID researchers develop new method to detect prion diseases

A fast test to diagnose fatal brain conditions such as mad cow disease in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans could be on the horizon, according to a new study from National Institutes of Health scientists. Researchers at NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have developed a highly sensitive and rapid new method to detect and measure infectious agents called prions that cause these diseases.

3 Dec 2010

Scientists find new protein to break-up blood clots in prion diseases

The joy of a juicy hamburger could make a comeback thanks a new discovery by scientists from the University of Kentucky. In a new research report in the December 2010 print issue of The FASEB Journal, scientists found that a protein our body uses to break up blood clots speeds up the progress of prion diseases. This substance, called plasminogen, is a new drug target for prion diseases in both humans and animals.

2 Dec 2010

New findings provide new clues on pathogenetic mechanisms of Alzheimer's disease

Pathological protein deposits linked to Alzheimer's disease and cerebral amyloid angiopathy can be triggered not only by the administration of pathogenic misfolded protein fragments directly into the brain but also by peripheral administration outside the brain.

22 Oct 2010

UCSF professor receives National Medal of Science

UCSF Nobel laureate Stanley B. Prusiner, MD, UCSF professor of neurology and director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, today (Oct. 15, 2010) was named to receive the National Medal of Science, the nation's highest honor for science and technology.

18 Oct 2010

Scientists to develop test for Mad Cow Disease detection

The eyes may or may not be windows to the soul, as the old adage goes, but scientists are reporting evidence that a peek into the eyes of cattle may become the basis for a long sought test to detect infection with the agent that causes Mad Cow Disease. That test could help prevent the disease from spreading in the food supply. A study on using the tell-tale glow given off by eyes infected with the Mad Cow agent appears in ACS' semi-monthly journal Analytical Chemistry.

9 Sep 2010

Researchers identify second type of complete sporadic disease

A new sporadic prion protein disease has been discovered. Variably protease-sensitive prionopathy, as it has been named, is the second type of complete sporadic disease to be identified since Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease was reported in the 1920s. The landmark finding from the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center at Case Western Reserve University is published in the August issue of Annals of Neurology.

13 Aug 2010

Neurodegenerative disease-causing infectious protein can erupt from healthy brain tissue: Study

In a startling new study that involved research on both sides of the Atlantic, scientists from The Scripps Research Institute in Florida and the University College London Institute of Neurology in England have shown for the first time that abnormal prions, bits of infectious protein devoid of DNA or RNA that can cause fatal neurodegenerative disease, can suddenly erupt from healthy brain tissue.

27 Jul 2010

New insight into transmission of prion diseases

Prion diseases are lethal neurodegenerative disorders that include Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE; commonly known as mad cow disease) in cows. A team of researchers, led by Adriano Aguzzi and Christina Sigurdson, at Universit-tsSpital Z-rich, Switzerland, has generated data in mice that provides greater understanding of the factors that determine how easy it is for prion diseases to be transmitted to a new host species.

15 Jun 2010

Eye test to detect cattle infected with Mad Cow Disease

The eyes may or may not be windows to the soul, as the old adage goes, but scientists are reporting evidence that a peek into the eyes of cattle may become the basis for a long-sought test to detect infection with the agent that causes Mad Cow Disease. That test could help prevent the disease from spreading in the food supply. A study on using the tell-tale glow given off by eyes infected with the Mad Cow agent appears in ACS' semi-monthly journal Analytical Chemistry.

5 Jun 2010

IGEN Networks signs MOU with Bio Business Development

IGEN Networks Corp. is pleased to announce that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Bio Business Development Corp. International, Inc. to negotiate the acquisition of the exclusive global distribution rights to the patented lateral-flow diagnostic testing platform technology for rapid detection of the infectious prion protein diseases.

1 Apr 2010

Researchers develop simple urine test to predict and diagnose preeclampsia

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have developed a simple urine test to rapidly predict and diagnose preeclampsia, a common, but serious hypertensive complication of pregnancy.

4 Feb 2010

Normal protein can be converted into prion that causes fatal brain diseases in humans

Scientists have determined how a normal protein can be converted into a prion, an infectious agent that causes fatal brain diseases in humans and mammals.

29 Jan 2010

TUM biophysicists map changes in energy landscape of zipper-like protein molecule

Biophysicists at TUM, the Technische Universitaet Muenchen, have published the results of single-molecule experiments that bring a higher-resolution tool to the study of protein folding. How proteins arrive at the three-dimensional shapes that determine their essential functions - or cause grave diseases when folding goes wrong - is considered one of the most important and least understood questions in the biological and medical sciences.

20 Jan 2010

New findings may yield novel therapies for chronic neurodegenerative diseases

We all have at one time or another experienced the typical signs of an infection: the fever, the listlessness, the lack of appetite. They are orchestrated by the brain in response to circulating cytokines, the signaling molecules of the immune system. But just how cytokines' reach extends beyond the almost impenetrable blood-brain barrier has been the topic of much dispute.

18 Jan 2010

Research may point to more effective therapeutic targets for prion diseases

Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have determined for the first time that prions, bits of infectious protein devoid of DNA or RNA that can cause fatal neurodegenerative disease, are capable of Darwinian evolution.

4 Jan 2010

Scientists anticipate new approaches in drug development to combat prion infection

The regulating protein Srebp2 drives cholesterol formation, which prions need for their propagation, in prion-infected neuronal cells. With these findings, published in the current issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, scientists of Helmholtz Zentrum München and Technische Universität München anticipate new approaches in drug development to combat prion infection.

20 Nov 2009