http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Prions are causing fatal and infectious diseases of the nervous system, such as the mad cow disease (BSE), scrapie in sheep or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. Scientists of Helmholtz Zentrum München and Technische Universität München, Germany, have now succeeded in elucidating another disease mechanism of prion diseases: The prion-infected cell changes its gene expression and produces increased quantities of cholesterol. Prions need this for their propagation. http://www.physorg.com/news177760967.html Chemistry Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:03:51 EST news177760967 For the first time, Whitehead Institute researchers have shown definitively that mutations associated with prion diseases are sufficient to cause a transmissible neurodegenerative disease. http://www.physorg.com/news170511514.html Medicine & Health Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:25:01 EST news170511514 A new study shows that nervous system integrity and axonal properties may play a key role in prion diseases. The findings, from researchers at the Rudolf Virchow Center and the Institute of Virology of the University of Würzburg, expand our understanding of the development of prion disease and suggest novel targets for therapeutic and diagnostic approaches in its early stages. Details are published August 21 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens. http://www.physorg.com/news170079903.html Medicine & Health Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:28:20 EST news170079903 Data from an ongoing multi-year study suggest that people who consume deer and elk with chronic wasting disease (CWD) may be protected from infection by an inability of the CWD infectious agent to spread to people. The results to date show that 14 cynomolgus macaques exposed orally or intracerebrally to CWD remain healthy and symptom free after more than six years of observation, though the direct relevance to people is not definitive and remains under study. http://www.physorg.com/news168178047.html Medicine & Health Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:13:59 EST news168178047 (PhysOrg.com) -- Antibodies that stick to a brain prion protein called PrP could be the key to treating prion diseases like variant CJD and preventing people accidentally exposed to prions from going on to develop the fatal brain disease. Using a precise visualisation technique, called X-ray crystallography, carried out at the Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS) at the Science and Technology Facilities Councils (STFC) Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire, scientists have identified an antibody that has the best ability to bind to PrP in the brain. Experiments using cells in the laboratory and in mice have suggested it could stop prion infection in its tracks. http://www.physorg.com/news153681509.html Biology Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:18:48 EST news153681509 A worldwide group of scientists has created an infectious prion disease in a mouse model, in a step that may help unravel the mystery of this progressive disease that affects the nervous system in humans and animals. The research team, including Christina J. Sigurdson, D.V.M., Ph.D., assistant professor of pathology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, also discovered that changing the structure of the prion protein by altering just two nucleic acids leads to a fatal neurological disorder in mice. Their findings will be published on line in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the week of December 1. http://www.physorg.com/news147702312.html Biology Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:25:12 EST news147702312 A comprehensive mouse model of inherited prion disease exhibits cognitive, motor, and neurophysiological deficits that bear a striking resemblance to the symptoms experienced by patients with the human version of "mad cow disease," Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). The research, published by Cell Press in the November 26th issue of the journal Neuron, provides exciting insight into the mechanism of disease and may lead to the development of new therapeutic strategies for this devastating neurodegenerative disorder. http://www.physorg.com/news146922723.html Medicine & Health Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:52:03 EST news146922723