Prions Observed Jumping Species Barrier

http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080904/full/news.2008.1080.html

Test tube experiments may help identify the most hazardous prion proteins.

Amber Dance


Mixing up normal and infectious prions in test tubes can generate entirely new forms of infectious prion.GettyInfectious prion proteins from hamsters can change normal proteins from mice into new, infectious forms of prion - simply by mixing the proteins together in a test tube.

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston suggest their discovery could be turned into a useful test for whether a given prion strain is transmissible from one species to another. Prion proteins are responsible for Creutzfeld-Jakob disease and "mad cow" disease.

But they also found that when a prion jumps species, it produces a new kind of prion. "This is very worrisome," says Claudio Soto, who led the research, published in Cell1. "The universe of possible prions could be much larger than we thought."

Normal prion protein, or PrP, is found throughout the body but is concentrated in the brain. Its exact role is not known, although it has been linked to cell signalling2, metal-ion transport3, and blood-cell manufacture4. The protein can adopt malformed shapes that cause disease. Those proteins, which are resistant to degradation, bind and convert normal protein to their troublesome conformation. Over time, the diseased protein builds up and forms fibrils in the brain, causing neurodegeneration and ultimately death.

Generally, prions are limited to a specific host and a few related species. But prions sometimes cross the species barrier to infect new hosts. Notably, prions from cows have hopped to humans, causing disease in 208 people, mostly in the UK. Now, scientists wonder if the prion-induced chronic wasting disease (CWD), which afflicts elk and deer in the US, could jump to humans. Since prion diseases have long dormant periods, the fact that there are no human cases of CWD doesn't necessarily indicate that people won't develop symptoms in the future.

Jump the barrier

Thanks for posting.

It sounds essentially like a virus.

infectious materials are generally chosen for weaponization based in substantial part for their alacrity.

Depending on the titer, though, it may take 10-20 years to see results.

Those poor victims in England must've eaten a whopping dose or some especially toxic form to be stricken so quickly.

Did you get that this is a toxin and not an infection, and the prion's route from the gut to the site of toxicity, the neurons, is unknown?

they're destroying the US, and it is a Communist plot! Damn you, Khrushchev!

Here is another example of our tax dollars at work.

Indonesian Minister: Rich nations creating "new viruses" to create markets for drug companies to sell vaccines --Supari says US using bird flu virus to develop biological weapons 06 Sep 2008 Indonesia stopped sharing the samples with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in December 2006 on fears pharmaceutical companies would use them to make vaccines that are too expensive for poor countries... Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari has broadened her critique of an "unfair, neocolonialist" global health system, raising the possibility earlier this year the United States was using the virus to develop biological weapons in her book "It's Time for the World to Change: Divine Hands Behind Avian Influenza." Supari told a rapturous crowd at a book discussion last week that rich nations were creating "new viruses" and sending them to developing nations in order create markets for drug companies to sell vaccines. "Indonesia sends a virus to the WHO but it suddenly it ends up with the US government. Then the US government turns the virus into dollars and we don't know what kind of research," Supari said.

Do you remember this is 2004? Proprietary information and zero risk baloney -when people in California probably got served prions at 11 restaurants and they couldn't even find out? Now, the USDA probably has a secret presidential order to not even announce problems and recalls. Risky business or risk death, where should the government's responsibility fall in this?



"In the mad cow meat recall, it took several days of negotiation with the USDA before the state was even able to share the information with county health departments, Reilly said. County health departments have been asked, but are not legally required, "to respect the proprietary nature'' of the information it receives from the USDA.

Reilly said that the USDA is concerned that release of proprietary information volunteered by meat distributors could threaten that system of voluntary cooperation.

Federal, state and local health officials stress that the USDA considers all the recalled meat from Washington safe, as it does not contain brain or spinal cord tissue thought to be able to harbor the infectious agent that causes mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

"This is a zero-risk product,'' said Steven Cohen, a spokesman for the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/01/03/MNGJF4315K1.DTL

:hi: