http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. The brain damage that characterizes Alzheimer's disease may originate in a form similar to that of infectious prion diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob, according to newly published research by The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-alzheimer-transmissible-similar-infectious-prion.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Tue, 04 Oct 2011 05:10:01 EST news236922710 In a new study NYU School of Medicine researchers report that they have found several chemical compounds, including an antidepressant, that have powerful effects against brain-destroying prion infections in mice, opening the door to potential treatments for human prion diseases. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-screen-antidepressant-drugs-possibility-brain-wasting.html Medical research Wed, 14 Sep 2011 13:38:03 EST news235226243 (Medical Xpress) -- A person's ability to battle viruses at the cellular level remarkably resembles the way deadly infectious agents called prions misfold and cluster native proteins to cause disease, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-good-prion-like-proteins-boost-immune.html Medical research Tue, 09 Aug 2011 02:00:21 EST news232073984 Unlocking the mechanisms that cause neurodegenerative prion diseases may require a genetic key, suggest new findings reported by University of Illinois at Chicago distinguished professor of biological sciences Susan Liebman. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-gene-classes-linked-prion-formation.html Genetics Thu, 26 May 2011 12:47:24 EST news225632811 Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have examined the potential for human exposure to prion diseases, looking at hunting, venison consumption, and travel to areas in which prion diseases have been reported in animals. Three prion diseases in particular – bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or "Mad Cow Disease"), variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), and chronic wasting disease (CWD) – were specified in the investigation. The results of this investigation are published in the June issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-cdc-potential-human-exposure-prion.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 23 May 2011 03:54:51 EST news225341659 Certain lichens can break down the infectious proteins responsible for chronic wasting disease (CWD), a troubling neurological disease fatal to wild deer and elk and spreading throughout the United States and Canada, according to U.S. Geological Survey research published today in the journal PLoS ONE. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-lichens-aid-combating-deadly-chronic.html Medical research Wed, 18 May 2011 14:17:35 EST news224946988 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. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-nih-fast-sensitive-blood-human.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 09 May 2011 17:26:23 EST news224180757