Almost two decades have passed since Stanley Prusiner proposed that the transmissible agent causing spongiform encephalopathies consists of a misfolded protein — but the biology of prion ...

Prions represent a new class of infectious agents which propagate on a protein-only level, not requiring agent-encoded nucleic acids. Newly emergent prion diseases such as bovine spongiform ...

If there is no nucleic acid, how are agent properties specified? Secondly, PrP (sometimes called prion protein) , is associated with the agent somehow - but what does it do? This debate matters ...

The treatment, which uses base editing to make a single-letter change in DNA, reduced levels of the disease-causing prion protein in the brain by as much as 60%. There is currently no cure for ...

The new gene therapy aims to address the root cause of prion disease by using the CHARM epigenetic editing platform from the Whitehead Institute to target and silence the gene that codes for the ...

Prion diseases are characterized by abnormal folding of the host’s naturally-occurring prion protein, leading to rapid neurodegeneration. They can be genetic, sporadic—without known cause—or acquired, ...

Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia are characterised by toxic clumps of faulty proteins. Some rare forms of dementia, including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) are caused by a type of ...

In TSEs the normal cellular prion protein (PrP C) is transformed into an infectious disease-associated isoform, PrP Sc — a potential target for immunotherapy. In the March 6 Nature, Anthony R. White ...

All specimens and/or MRI disks sent to the center must accompany a completed Test Request Form and/or an MRI Interpretation Request Form. Prion diseases are rare, fatal brain disorders in humans and ...

Jan. 6, 2025 — Protein aggregation is typical of various neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and prion diseases such as Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. A research team has now ...