Technorati Tags: Prions, Mad Cow Disease, Creutzfeldt Jacob DiseaseScientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston are developing a highly sensitive blood test for detecting prion particles, the infectious agents responsible for scrapie in sheep, mad cow disease, and the human form of the disease called variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease.
Prions are misfolded rogue proteins that can replicate and build up in the brain. Up until now, prions could only be detected biochemically in the brain and some lymph tissue, Dr. Claudio Soto and his associates explain in the online issue of Nature Medicine.
I'm Dr. Joshua Schwimmer, a nephrologist and internal medicine physician in New York City. • Kidney Notes was the first active nephrology blog. (Trivia: Kidney Notes is so old that the National Library of Medicine still uses it as an example of how to formally cite blogs.) • Professionally, you can find me at Kidney.nyc. • Kidney Notes is for educational purposes only, not medical advice. Consult qualified health care professionals. See disclaimer.
Monday, August 29, 2005
Better Than a Brain Biopsy -- a New Test for Prions
From Reuters: