Posted on 04/21/2005 11:04:52 PM PDT by neverdem
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Washington, DC, Apr. 21 (UPI) -- Scientists involved with a new study released Thursday said it provides strong proof of the controversial theory that infectious proteins called prions cause mad cow disease and similar brain disorders in humans.
Some experts find the data unconvincing, however, and one researcher recently presented findings he said robustly support a different hypothesis: these diseases are caused by a bacteria.
"This is really the best and final proof for the prion hypothesis," Claudio Soto, a professor of neurology at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and senior author of the new study, told United Press International.
Stanley Prusiner, of the University of California, San Francisco, won a Nobel prize in 1997 for his hypothesis that prions are the pathogen that cause these fatal, brain-wasting diseases, collectively known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies or TSEs. These include mad cow disease, Creutzfeldt Jakob disease in humans, chronic wasting disease in deer and elk and scrapie in sheep.
The prion hypothesis has enjoyed widespread acceptance among TSE specialists, but it also has remained controversial because prions isolated from a TSE never have been shown to be infectious. Prions exist in two forms in the body: a normal form whose function is uncertain and a misfolded form that is associated with disease.
The new study, published in the April 21 issue of the journal Cell, describes how Soto and colleagues isolated misfolded prions from the brains of hamsters experimentally infected with scrapie. Using a method they developed called protein misfolding cyclic amplification, or PMCA, they significantly increased the number of prions and then placed them in a test tube with normal prions.
The misfolded prions are thought to cause the normal prions to transform into the misfolded, disease-causing variants.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
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Me, too. IF the prions are caused by bacteria, there may be a way to prevent the prion formation by simply getting rid of the bacteria. At the least, it may be possible to halt the progress of the disease.
Imho, this is well worth investigating.
Oh, I thought it said PRISONS.
It's mad to allow prisons to fold.
I recall reading in Free Republic years ago about a theory that Prions are a result of an immune response exposure to a common soil bacteria (If I recall correctly it was acinetobacter or something like that). The theory made sense to me. You don't see predator animals coming down with prion diseases, just animals that get their food off the dirt such as grazing cows, deer, goats, or squirrels.
prions=bacterial feces
well had to get that crack pot theory out!
LOL
an interesting read
Sounds like quite a lot of inconclusion remains and the scientists can't agree. Thanks for the ping.
The bacteria theory would make sense since the CWD in the Elk and deer immediately rebound from herd culling. Some had postulated the pasture was infected.
I have eaten a great many mad cow burgers in my youth. I try to limit my exposure to mass produced ground beef and beef products but I still eat hot dogs occasionally and hamburgers out when there is nothing else. In general I don't like the idea of eating a hamburger composed of dozens of substandard cows, some sick being ground at a commercial plant. Most stores say they grind their meat in house. They do, but it comes in preground in stainless steel tubs from a factory. I always wondered why burger meat started tasting different years ago. I buy my ground meat at places that grind their meat EXCLUSIVELY from scraps. The meat tastes better, is juicier, and does not seem to have as much water in it. You should fry burgers - not boil them!
God knows how many prions each of us has eaten. If they truly are the cause, rather than a symptom of a variety of degenerative brain diseases we are in for a costly old age!
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