An Infectious Hereditary Illness?
Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - 03:35
in Biology & Nature
Could a hereditary illness ever spread by contamination? Researchers studying Huntington’s disease have shown that the normal form of huntingtin protein can acquire an abnormal form without any modification of its genetic code. These researchers observed that clumps of abnormal huntingtin protein, characteristic of Huntington’s disease, could induce clumping in the normal form of the protein.