Tracking Down the Cause of Mad Cow Disease

(PhysOrg.com) -- The cause of diseases such as BSE in cattle and Creutzfeld -Jakob disease in humans is a prion protein. This protein attaches to cell membranes by way of an anchor made of sugar and lipid components (a glycosylphosphatidylinositol, GPI) anchor. The anchoring of the prions seems to have a strong influence on the transformation of the normal form of the protein into its pathogenic form, which causes scrapie and mad cow disease.

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