Montana scientists made a surprising discovery recently that sheds light on how deadly brain-killing diseases like mad cow disease and chronic-wasting disease destroy brain tissue.

Their research, published Thursday in the online version of the journal Science, shows that altering a brain protein associated with the diseases somehow slows or prevents symptoms of the disease, even though the brain is infected.

"It means we've weakened the process dramatically," said Bruce Chesebro, a scientist at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, who led the research along with scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif.

Diseases such as mad cow disease, chronic-wasting disease and a similar disease in people are associated with twisted proteins in the brain called prions. It's unclear what causes the protein to become misshapen, but the path of the diseases is well known: The twisted proteins form into clumps, causing the death of brain cells. People infected suffer a host of horrible symptoms, including dementia, before they inevitably die.

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Source: billingsgazette.com; Jennifer McKee, Gazette State Bureau
June 3, 2005

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