Sticky antibodies block prion disease

(PhysOrg.com) -- Antibodies that stick to a brain prion protein called PrP could be the key to treating prion diseases like variant CJD and preventing people accidentally exposed to prions from going on to develop the fatal brain disease. Using a precise visualisation technique, called X-ray crystallography, carried out at the Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS) at the Science and Technology Facilities Councils (STFC) Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire, scientists have identified an antibody that has the best ability to bind to PrP in the brain. Experiments using cells in the laboratory and in mice have suggested it could stop prion infection in its tracks.

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