Preclinical test for prion diseases
Article Abstract:
Immunohistochemical assays of sheep tonsillar tissues detect the presence of PrP(super Sc) protein before the sheep clinically develops scrapie disease. PrP(super Sc) is an indicator of prion diseases (transmissible spongiform encephalopathies). The method has a low incubation time and uses antibodies against synthetic PrP-based peptides. This technique can be used for preclinical testing of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans as infectivity can be determined from human lymphoid tissues and so may be detectable in tonsillar tissue using this technique.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1996
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Straining the prion hypothesis
Article Abstract:
It is misguided to assume that prions are the cause of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). In fact, it has not been possible to identify the exact nature of a prion, and the prion hypothesis cannot explain the main strains of TSE. It is important to properly consider the 'virino' hypothesis, which indicates an agent-specific replicable informational molecule bound to PrP, a protective host protein. Clearly, prion alone cannot explain the biological diversity of TSEs.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1998
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Nobel panel rewards prion theory after years of heated debate
Article Abstract:
Scientist Stanley Prusiner of the University of California, San Francisco, has been awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine. The award, for research in the field of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), has delighted fellow scientists who say it is justly deserved. Prusiner has been involved in the identification of the infectious agent, known as a prion, responsible for TSEs.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1997
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Retinal angiogenesis in development and disease. Extremely slow drude relaxation of correlated electrons
- Abstracts: Greens can be good for you. Mullite and the mystery of Hessian wares
- Abstracts: Water for a desert denizen. Apache trout: on the brink of recovery. Desert tortoise HCP
- Abstracts: Human effect on global climate? Constraints on Earth accretion deduced from noble metals in the oceanic mantle
- Abstracts: How not to act on good advice. Likely size of the French BSE epidemic. Spending on BSE research