The mouse manages to cure the evil caused by prions

2007/03/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Medikuntza

The London Institute of Neurology, in a research with mice, has shown that damage caused by modified prions in the nervous system can be cured. It is essential to detect the disease in time.

The analysis of the behaviors of mice has allowed an early diagnosis of the disease. A typical symptom of the disease is tremor and balance. This symptom appears three months after the mouse becomes infected with modified prions. Later the mouse dies.

Before, however, there are behaviors that warn that mice are infected, for example, within eight weeks of being infected, mice lose the ability to recognize known objects. Researchers have shown that if the production of modified prions is prevented at this time, damage to the nervous system is recovered and mice recover.

They consider research to be an important step, since the human disease of modified prions, the evil Creutzfeldt-Jakob, is incurable. Also known as spongiform encephalopathy, it is usually not detected until symptoms are very obvious. By then, the disease has no turning back.

The research shows the importance of making an early diagnosis, since proper treatment allows stopping the disease. Therefore, early diagnosis in humans is now being investigated. However, the result will not be as good as in mice, as the production of modified prions as in laboratory mice (genetically modified transgenic mice) cannot be prevented.