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Tag: "prions" at biology news

Fibril Shape Is The Basis Of Prion Strains And Cross-species Prion Infection

...ob disease in humans, suggests that the ability of prions in one species to infect other species depends on ...he journal Cell. Although research suggests that prions from one species rarely infect other species, some scientists believe the species barrier was breach...

Strongest proof yet found for prion hypothesis

...astly accelerate the activity of a small number of prions taken from infected hamsters and placed in test tu...and the process repeated, until the only remaining prions were those that had been generated in the test tubes. These were then injected into the brains of he...

First technology to remove prions that cause vCJD from blood launched

...contaminated with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob (vCJD) prions may no longer be a concern for the thousands of pe... first and only technology that removes infectious prions that may be the causative agent of vCJD from red cells, the most commonly transfused blood component...

Research into how prions act in the brain could hold the key to defeating diseases

...ught to be caused by eating food contaminated with prions that is also responsible for the epidemic of BSE o...earch has already found that the highly-infectious prions are misfolded proteins that spread rapidly in the brain and are very difficult to destroy. It is not...

Active Vaccine Prevents Mice From Developing Prion Disease

... the digestive tract," he explains. "Thus, harmful prions in contaminated food will be destroyed in the gut ... proteins occurring naturally in the body. But the prions turn deadly by changing shape. These "misfolded" proteins tend to aggregate in toxic, cell-killing c...

Unweaving amyloid fibers to solve prion puzzles

...mational cascade." When such a cascade occurs, the prions join and form amyloid fibers. (While not all amylo...oids form. "We now have an overall picture of how prions join together to form the amyloid's molecular structure," says Lindquist, who also is a professor of...

New results validating Pall prion reduction filter disclosed at ISBT Congress

...It is the first technology that reduces infectious prions from red cells, the most widely transfused blood component. Abnormal prions are believed to be the causative agent of vCJD. The status of evaluations of the new filter system ...

Prions rapidly 'remodel' good protein into bad, Brown study shows

...research helps explain the puzzling process of how prions multiply and spread infection. Satpute-Krishnan s...e speed of protein conversion was surprising. "The prions were taking all the existing protein and refolding it immediately," she said. "It's a very, very rap...

Brittle prions are more infectious

...udied yeast prions, which are similar to mammalian prions in that they act as infectious proteins. In recent years, mammalian prions have gained increasing notoriety for their roles in such fatal brain-destroying human diseases as Cr...

Federal testing for mad cow disease a failure, law review editor says

...he formation of abnormal proteins, or prions. The prions attack a cow's brain tissue, causing holes to form. As the brain loses function, the cow becomes disoriented and clumsy. Eventually the animal loses all muscle control and is unable to walk or eat. No treatment is available. Enforcement of cattle-f...

Prion find points way to test for human 'mad cow' disease

...r reports. To detect the very small quantities of prions found in blood samples, UTMB professor Claudio Sot...up, which greatly accelerates the process by which prions convert normal proteins to misshapen infectious forms. "With this method, for the first time we hav...

Prion disease treatable if caught early

...d that early brain degeneration can be reversed if prions are depleted in neurons. In the new studies published in Neuron, they established that cognitive and behavioral impairments—which appear early in humans with prion disease—can be reversed if prion depletion is done early. What’s more, they found t...

Brown team finds crucial protein role in deadly prion spread

...e they might reveal a way to control the spread of prions through drug intervention. If a drug could be made...ished in Nature in 2005. That research showed that prions ?strange, self-replicating proteins that cause fatal brain diseases ?convert healthy protein into ab...

Scripps research study reveals structural dynamics of single prion molecules

...neurodegenerative diseases. Intriguingly, certain prions and amyloids can play beneficial roles. The subjec...rsion to amyloid fibers. Some studies suggest that prions may also play key roles in certain critical processes such as long-term memory. Other authors of th...

Scientists identify prion's infectious secret

...rs researchers also have discovered non-pathogenic prions that play beneficial roles in biology, and prions even may act as essential elements in learning and memory. But although prions have received a gr...

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