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Categories: Biology: Microbiology, Offbeat: Space

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Proteins in the brain called prions are well known for their involvement in causing disease, but a new study suggests they may help yeast cope with rapidly changing environmental conditions.

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The highest-ever resolution imaging of an infectious prion provides the first atomic-level data of how these abnormal proteins are assembled to cause fatal neurodegenerative diseases in people and animals -- and how they can be potentially targeted by new therapies.

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Human prion diseases include Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease (GSS). A new study reports a significant advance in the development of mouse models of human prion diseases. The study demonstrates spontaneous formation of disease-relevant, transmissible prion protein assemblies in mice bearing only human forms of the prion protein.

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A professor of biochemistry and molecular biology report an unanticipated role for prion nucleation seeds that enhances their ability to appear and resist curing.

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A 5-minute soak in a 40% solution of household bleach decontaminated stainless steel wires coated with chronic wasting disease (CWD) prions, according to a new study. The scientists used the wires to model knives and saws that hunters and meat processors use when handling deer, elk and moose - all of which are susceptible to CWD.

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Researchers have developed a new gene-targeted approach to study chronic wasting disease in mice, allowing opportunities for research that has not previously existed.

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Some deer are more susceptible to chronic wasting disease that is spreading through herds of white-tailed deer across much of the United States, according to researchers, who have identified a panel of genetic markers that reliably predict which animals are most vulnerable to the contagious neurological disorder.

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Scientists studying the progression of inherited and infectious eye diseases that can cause blindness have found that microglia, a type of nervous system cell suspected to cause retinal damage, surprisingly had no damaging role during prion disease in mice. In contrast, the study findings indicated that microglia might delay disease progression.

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Prions can infect both humans and animals, causing Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans, mad cow disease in cattle, and chronic wasting disease in elk and deer. The infectious, misfolded protein particles often go undetected as they destroy brain tissue, causing memory loss, mobility issues, and ultimately death. Preclinical detection of prions has proven difficult, but new research suggests skin samples hold early signs of prion disease that precede neurologic symptoms.

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A study has confirmed that some vials of a hormone used in discontinued medical treatments contained seeds of a protein implicated in Alzheimer's disease, and are able to seed amyloid pathology in mice.

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A major compound in soil organic matter degrades chronic wasting disease prions and decreases infectivity in mice, according to a new study.

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By the time symptoms of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) are typically discovered, death is looming and inevitable. In a new study, researchers report finding tell-tale evidence of the condition's infectious agent in the eyes of deceased sCJD patients, making the eye a potential source for both early CJD detection and prevention of disease transmission.

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The first example of prion strains that replicate independently in vitro and in vivo suggests that strain diversity may be greater than previously thought, according to a new study.

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A new study has shed light on the mechanisms underlying the progression of prion diseases and identified a potential target for treatment.

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A hamster prion that replicated under conditions of low RNA levels in mouse brain material resulted in altered disease features when readapted and transmitted back to hamsters, according to new research.

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Chronic wasting disease (CWD) did not cross the species barrier to infect cynomolgus macaque monkeys during a lengthy investigation exploring risks to humans.

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Familial human prion diseases are passed within families and are associated with 34 known prion protein mutations. To determine whether three of the unstudied mutations are transmissible, scientists exposed research mice to brain samples from three people who died from a familial prion disease. After observing the mice for about two years, they found two of the mutations, Y226X and G131V, are transmissible.

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Deer infected with chronic wasting disease are doomed to a slow and certain death, eventually wasting away as they lose the ability to eat and drink. There is no cure and no vaccine, and the number of infected deer continues to rise every year. But scientists recently published a new study that could help explain the movement of the disease across the landscape.

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New research summarizes the efforts in disease surveillance and risk management of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and shows that past management strategies such as selective culling, herd reduction, and hunter surveillance have had only limited effectiveness. The summary points towards new advice for optimal, cost-effective strategies in aggressive disease control.

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Nerve-damaging protein particles called prions have long been known to exist in mammals. Now, in a surprising discovery, investigators report they have found evidence that bacteria can also make prions. Prions—self-propagating clumps of misfolded protein—have been identified as the cause of several rare but universally fatal neurodegenerative conditions, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy, popularly known as mad cow disease.