Detecting the temporal status of blood-borne prions in transmissible spongiform encephalopathy-infected hosts
Altmetrics
Abstract
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), or prion diseases, are infectious, fatal neurodegenerative diseases with a protracted subclinical disease state spanning months to years. Prion diseases develop when the normal cellular prion protein (PrPC) undergoes a conformational change into an aberrant, disease-causing, isoform (PrPSc/PrPres/PrPD), which aggregates into amyloid fibrils. Prions are unique from all other infectious diseases in that they lack nucleic acid. Prion diseases are known to naturally occur in cattle, sheep, mink, cervids, and humans; however, the exact mechanisms of ...
(For more, see "View full record.")