Study hints at mad cow cause....

[Dr Mordrid]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/30/national/30protein.html

Dr. Mordrid

[TransformX]

Need to register in order to read

[UtwigMU]

bugmenot, there's also a plugin for IE and Firefox, in order to get arround mandatory free registration hassle.

I don't have it on this rig, but it worked for the few sites I tried, including NY Times.

[Dr Mordrid]

Sorry for that. Here's part of it;

Scientists are reporting that, for the first time, they have made an artificial prion, or misfolded protein, that can, by itself, produce a deadly infectious disease in mice and may help explain the roots of mad cow disease.

The findings, being reported today in the journal Science, are strong evidence for the "protein-only hypothesis," the controversial idea that a protein, acting alone without the help of DNA or RNA, a cousin of DNA, can cause certain kinds of infectious diseases.

The concept was introduced in 1982 by Dr. Stanley Prusiner, a neurology professor at the University of California, San Francisco, who led the new study. The hypothesis is still unsettling to many scientists who have been taught that only bacteria and viruses containing genetic information can spread infectious diseases.

Over the years, the idea that a misfolded prion protein, because of its shape alone, could trigger an infectious disease has been gaining acceptance, but it has never been conclusively proven. Proteins, which are strings of amino acids, fold into distinct shapes to carry out various functions in the body. It is not completely known what makes proteins fold incorrectly. But the theory is that when a misfolded prion comes in contact with other prions, they, too, become misfolded and a disease is spread.

In this study, Dr. Prusiner said, researchers essentially created a man-made prion and injected it into mouse brains and produced disease. Then, they took tissue from the diseased mice and injected it into other mice, which also got the same disease.

Dr. Prusiner said in a telephone interview that he was "flabbergasted" that it took 22 years to prove the hypothesis, but that his laboratory was able to overcome earlier technical difficulties with a new set of experiments. "We have compelling evidence," he said. "We've done it all."

Dr. Christopher Dobson, a professor of chemical and structural biology at Cambridge University and an expert on protein folding, said: "This is the key experiment everyone was waiting for. While there is never absolute proof in science, this experiment puts the protein-only theory of transmission beyond reasonable doubt."

Dr. Mordrid

[UtwigMU]

The prion proteins being the cause has been suggested since about the outbreak of BSE.

The disease, not being caused by introducing RNA or DNA is interesting nonetheless.

Also here's more to it: Cows are being fed bone powder (I don't know the proper english expression - the bones and tissues not suitable for consumption are ground and processed into food.) Thus tissues of other mammals, were introduced in cows, which caused the disease.

How manny cases have you had in USA, so far 5 cows died here and we were without BSE for a long time.

[GNEP]

The correct term is "bonemeal". Fishmeal has also been used as feed (protein) supplement.

The use of bonemeal is no longer allowed in the UK as far as I know. Cases of BSE have been dropping off significantly in recent years:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/bse/bse-statistics/level-4-weekly-stats.html

Presume other countries are following the UK's "lead" on this one...

[GNEP]

And actually I'd be quite interested to learn how Scrapie fits into this... that disease has been around in Sheep for centuries and it has always been disputed as to the degree of relationship with BSE.

[rylan]

Theres been 1 confirmed case of a cow with BSE in the US that I know of, and nothing else for quite some time.
Bonemeal and other types of meat 'refeeding' has been banned here for many years.

Thats pretty freaky though that a defective protein can cause that much trouble.

[Brian R.]

I hope they did a negative control. Sounds like they didn't and that's a fatal flaw.

[Umfriend]

AFAIK, the UK was actually one of the _last_ developed ****ries to ban bonemeal...

[GNEP]

Er, Umf, you might need to spell "countries" properly

And I meant "lead" as in the spread of the disease rather than its control... the UK did BSE bigger and better than anyone else.

(I could make some comments here about the french calling BSE "JCB" because if a cow gets it they don't get the vet and inspector to make an official report, they just bury the animal, hence they "don't have BSE", but I won't. Oh wait, I just did )

[Greebe]

Four or 5 years ago there was a company in Indianapolis who processed dead animals (cows, pigs etc) to be processed into pet food and other products. Issue with this place was that the company left these animal carcuses out in the open enviroment to rot away for several months during the winter while stinking up the entire neighbourhood... this plant is located roughly mid town in a city with a population of ~1mil and not all that far from the White River (major watershed)

You wouldn't believe all the screaming, political wrangling and what that had to be done to get them to clean up the bloody mess... and they only did once it hit the local news and the perverbial shit hit the fan.