Neurodegenerative diseases are some of the most troubling to mankind, especially because there are no cures at present. Alzheimer's disease, for instance, is extremely distressing for the patient and the family and can linger for many years. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is another distressing, albeit very rare, neurological disease that has no cure. Unlike Alzheimer's, this disease kills its victims quickly, within just months after diagnosis.
There are several different types of CJD, and one type is known as familial or inherited CJD. Inherited cases of CJD account for only about 10 percent of the cases in general and are caused by a genetic mutation. The most common form of CJD is known as sporadic CJD and occurs in people with no family history or other risk factors.
There are also two types of CJD that are acquired and also extremely rare. Many people associate CJD with mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), and more than 200 people have contracted what is called variant CJD and died from eating foods from infected animals. Most of these deaths occurred in the United Kingdom where nearly 200,000 cattle were found to be infected, and more than 4 million were slaughtered to eradicate the risk of spreading the disease. While some diseases can be prevented by simply cooking meat to a specific temperature, this is not true of mad cow disease.
The disease also has been transmitted by contaminated immunoglobulin, electrode implants or corneal grafts from an infected donor, and this is known as iatrogenic CJD or iCJD. Human growth hormone extracted from people who eventually died from CJD also has been shown to be a source of transmission. A medical report in 2004 also suggested that vCJD can be transmitted in blood, and as a result, the American Red Cross forbids blood donations from individuals who spent three or more months in the United Kingdom from 1980 to 1996, which was the time when CJD risks were at their highest.
No one knows why this disease occurs, but they do known that the disease develops because of misfolded proteins known as prions. The prions reproduce many times and eventually begin creating holes in the brain's tissue, and the tissue becomes sponge like. The first symptoms of CJD are often problems with memory, hallucinations and personality changes. The latter is especially true of the vCJD related to mad cow disease, and patients suffer from several mood changes as well as a heightened sense of touch which causes a great deal of pain.
Not only is there no cure for the disease, there are no medications to effectively treat the symptoms or slow progression of the disease. Although it is a rare disorder, scientists still are trying to discover a cure or treatments as well as figuring out if the prions act to cause the disease or if something else is wrong that causes these proteins to misfold in the first place. Biotech services such as protein synthesis and protein sequencing are important parts of this research and hopefully will lead to a future cure or even a vaccine.
There are several different types of CJD, and one type is known as familial or inherited CJD. Inherited cases of CJD account for only about 10 percent of the cases in general and are caused by a genetic mutation. The most common form of CJD is known as sporadic CJD and occurs in people with no family history or other risk factors.
There are also two types of CJD that are acquired and also extremely rare. Many people associate CJD with mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), and more than 200 people have contracted what is called variant CJD and died from eating foods from infected animals. Most of these deaths occurred in the United Kingdom where nearly 200,000 cattle were found to be infected, and more than 4 million were slaughtered to eradicate the risk of spreading the disease. While some diseases can be prevented by simply cooking meat to a specific temperature, this is not true of mad cow disease.
The disease also has been transmitted by contaminated immunoglobulin, electrode implants or corneal grafts from an infected donor, and this is known as iatrogenic CJD or iCJD. Human growth hormone extracted from people who eventually died from CJD also has been shown to be a source of transmission. A medical report in 2004 also suggested that vCJD can be transmitted in blood, and as a result, the American Red Cross forbids blood donations from individuals who spent three or more months in the United Kingdom from 1980 to 1996, which was the time when CJD risks were at their highest.
No one knows why this disease occurs, but they do known that the disease develops because of misfolded proteins known as prions. The prions reproduce many times and eventually begin creating holes in the brain's tissue, and the tissue becomes sponge like. The first symptoms of CJD are often problems with memory, hallucinations and personality changes. The latter is especially true of the vCJD related to mad cow disease, and patients suffer from several mood changes as well as a heightened sense of touch which causes a great deal of pain.
Not only is there no cure for the disease, there are no medications to effectively treat the symptoms or slow progression of the disease. Although it is a rare disorder, scientists still are trying to discover a cure or treatments as well as figuring out if the prions act to cause the disease or if something else is wrong that causes these proteins to misfold in the first place. Biotech services such as protein synthesis and protein sequencing are important parts of this research and hopefully will lead to a future cure or even a vaccine.
About the Author:
Armand Zeiders likes writing about biomedical research. For further details about custom antibodies, please go to the PrimmBiotech.com site today.
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