Innovation Anthology #251:
Prion research started by looking for the cause of mad cow disease.
But now scientists have discovered misfolded prions are linked to many other conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease in humans.
Dr. Jean Phillipe Deslys from the Atomic Energy Commission in France gives this insight into prion research using transgenic mice.
DR. JEAN PHILLIPE DESLYS: So it turns out that the prion protein would be the intermediate necessary for the toxicity of these Alzheimer’s oligomers. Moreover when you look at transgenic mice which do not express these prion protein, they are insensitive to the toxicity of these Alzheimer oligomers. And for the normal animals which do express the prion protein and which are sensitive to the toxicity of these Alzheimer’s oligomers, when you treat them with antibodies against the prion proteins, you protect them from the toxicity of the
Alzehimer’s aggregates.
Dr. Jean Phillipe Deslys spoke in Edmonton at the recent Prion Conference.
Thanks today to the Canadian Institutes for Health Research
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
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Sponsor
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Program Date: 2009-08-20