Medical research

Impact of prion proteins on the nerves revealed for the first time

When prion proteins mutate, they trigger mad cow and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Although they are found in virtually every organism, the function of these proteins remained unclear. Researchers from the University of Zurich ...

Alzheimer's disease & dementia

Alzheimer-type brain pathology after transplantation of dura mater

Up to now Alzheimer's disease has not been recognized as transmissible. Now researchers at the University of Zurich and the Medical University Vienna demonstrated Alzheimer-type pathology in brains of recipients of dura mater ...

Medical research

Synthetic prion series created for the first time

At times, to understand something well, it is useful to rebuild it from scratch. It happens with prions as well: in collaboration with the BESTA Institute in Milan, the Laboratory of Prion Biology at SISSA in Trieste assembled ...

Medical research

Scientists develop nasal test for human prion disease

A nasal brush test can rapidly and accurately diagnose Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), an incurable and ultimately fatal neurodegenerative disorder, according to a study by National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

NC hospital: 18 possibly exposed to rare disease

A North Carolina hospital says 18 patients may have been exposed to a rare neurological disease after surgical instruments were improperly sanitized.

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

Blood can transmit Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a rare but fatal disease in humans. For the first time, the presence of infectivity in the blood of patients affected by sporadic and the new variant of CJD was established by scientists ...

Medical research

The flexible tail of the prion protein poisons brain cells

For decades, there has been no answer to the question of why the altered prion protein is poisonous to brain cells. Neuropathologists from the University of Zurich and University Hospital Zurich have now shown that it is ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

One case of rare brain disease confirmed in B.C.

One case of a rare, degenerative brain disease has been confirmed in British Columbia's Fraser Valley, and a health official says two other cases are now suspected.

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