FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, May 9, 2011 Scientists from the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID),
part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), report that
they have developed a method—10,000 times more sensitive than
other methods—to detect variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (vCJD)
in blood plasma. vCJD is a type of prion disease in humans that
leads to brain damage and death. The NIAID researchers also used
the test to rapidly detect scrapie, a prion disease of sheep, in
infected hamsters, some pre-symptomatic. Prion diseases, also
known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, are
difficult to diagnose, untreatable and ultimately fatal.
Scientists believe disease-causing prions are abnormal
infectious clusters of prion protein molecules. Normally, prion
protein molecules exist in every mammal in an unclustered,
harmless form. In prion diseases, tissue damage leaves
microscopic sponge-like holes in the brain. Along with vCJD and
scrapie, other forms of prion disease include