Via Scoop.it – Virology News
Prion diseases, or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), occur naturally in several species, including humans, cattle, sheep, and deer, and can be transmitted experimentally to many others. Typically, incubation times are relatively long, extending to 40 years or more in humans; however, after appearance of clinical symptoms, death mostly ensues within less than a year, as a consequence of neurodegeneration accompanied by accumulation of abnormal conformers of the host protein PrP. Natural transmission usually occurs perorally, as exemplified by the kuru epidemic among the Fore people of Papua New Guinea, attributed to cannibalistic practices; the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) epizootic in the United Kingdom at the end of last century, caused by feeding of contaminated meat-and-bone meal to cattle; or the current epizootic of chronic wasting disease afflicting cervids in 19 states of the United States. Transmission of BSE prions to young humans gave rise to a limited outbreak of a novel illness, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), almost exclusively in the UK. Sporadic cases of prion disease occur at very low frequency in human populations (sCJD) and in cattle herds (atypical BSE), and are attributed to spontaneous generation of prions in the affected individuals. Finally, familial forms of human prion disease are linked to a variety of different, dominant mutations in the PRNP gene, and while afflicted families are rare, penetrance is very high.
Very nice review from an authority in the field.
Prion image courtesy of Russell Kightley Media
ViroBlogy 
31 March, 2012 at 00:14 |
It is time for the public to be told the truth:
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and sporadic Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (sCJD)
are sister prion diseases, (like mad cow) transmissible, infectious by medical
equipment, (scopes, etc.) dental and eye equipment, blood, urine, feces,
saliva, and mucous.
Doctors frequently misdiagnose AD and sCJD one for the other. The symptoms and
neuropathology are almost identical. (www.alzheimers-prions.com/ )
US AD epidemic = 6 million victims – new case every 69 seconds.
Research by Dr. Claudio Soto, et al, University of
Texas Medical School, has confirmed earlier studies which found
injecting Alzheimer’s brain material into mice brains caused infectious
prion disease.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111004113757.htm
Dr. Soto’s findings confirmed 2010 research by Dr. Mathias Jucker, Univ/Tubingen, Germany,
which also found injecting Alzheimer’s brain tissue into mice brains resulted in prion disease.
http://ec.europa.eu/research/headlines/news/article_10_11_08_en.html
31 March, 2012 at 11:49 |
Great paper. This one talks using prion antibodies to induce apoptosis in tumour cells:
Antibodies to Prion Protein Inhibit Human Colon Cancer Cell Growth
http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte.asp?Aktion=ShowFulltext&ArtikelNr=225243&Ausgabe=249221&ProduktNr=224124