Infectious prion protein discovered in urine of patients with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
Thursday, August 7, 2014 - 12:33
in Health & Medicine
The misfolded and infectious prion protein that is a marker for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease – linked to the consumption of infected cattle meat – has been detected in the urine of patients with the disease. Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans and bovine spongiform encephalopathy in animals – also known as Mad Cow disease – are fatal neurodegenerative disorders. There are currently no noninvasive tools available to diagnose the disease and there are no treatments.