Copyright 2008 Medical News Today Latest CJD / vCJD / Mad Cow Disease News From Medical News Today. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/cjd-vcjd/ admin@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Admin) editors@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Editors) en-us Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113745.php Abviva, Inc. (OTCBB: AVVA) announced that BioBDC International (BioBDC), Abviva's exclusive sales agent for Mad Cow diagnostic tests produced by Abviva's subsidiary company Prion Developmental Laboratories, Inc. (PDL), reported the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed a new case of mad cow disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), was discovered in western Canada, increasing consumer's concerns over beef safety. Wed, 18 Jun 2008 07:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/111820.php YouTube, the online video community that allows people to discover, watch and share originally created videos, has teamed up with scientists at The University of California, San Francisco to tap the video sharing platform to drive medical research. Wed, 18 Jun 2008 02:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/111653.php Infectious proteins known as prions have been identified as the cause of "mad cow" disease (BSE). The culprits are "incorrectly folded" proteins that can "infect" healthy proteins. The molecular bases for such prion diseases are not yet fully understood. Wed, 11 Jun 2008 04:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/110757.php A division of Nevada-based Plasma Etch, Inc. Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/105172.php In a move to reduce the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as "mad cow disease", and protect the health of humans and animals, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned certain high risk animal parts from all animal feed, including pet food. The rule was issued yesterday, 23rd April, and will come into force in 12 months to give the industry time to put it into practice. Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/103068.php Two people have died of vCJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease), the human form of mad cow disease, in Castilla-Leon, central Spain. One person (51) died three months ago while the other one (26) died last week, say authorities. According to Spain's Health Department, these were not the first vCJD deaths in the country. Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/101406.php Researchers from the United Kingdom and France have identified four separate biochemical subgroups in a selection of cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The study, published March 14th in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, suggests that these subgroups could represent distinct prion strains in what is the most common human prion disease. Tue, 18 Mar 2008 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/100862.php UK and French researchers have identified four separate biochemical subgroups in a selection of cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The study, published March 14th in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, suggests that these subgroups could represent distinct prion strains in what is the most common human prion disease. Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/99424.php A nano-sensor for better detection of Mad Cow Disease agent In an advance in food safety, researchers in New York are reporting development of a nano-sized sensor that detects record low levels of the deadly prion proteins that cause Mad Cow Disease and other so-called prion diseases. Tue, 19 Feb 2008 02:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/97775.php The largest recall of beef in U.S. history - over 143 million pounds - and the solid evidence that USDA has failed to enforce its own ban against downer cattle being used in the nation's school lunch program, demand immediate action by Congress says food safety attorney William D. Marler. Thu, 07 Feb 2008 11:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/96593.php Seven former medical officials are on trial in France following a 17 year investigation into over 100 deaths from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) of young patients treated with contaminated growth hormones. The defendants, retired doctors and pharmacists in their 70s and 80s, are accused of manslaughter, aggravated deception and causing unintentional injury, said Reuters news agency. Thu, 03 Jan 2008 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/92913.php Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) has killed a 39 year old woman in the UK and triggered renewed fears that a new surge of mad cow disease is on the way. However, experts are saying there is no need to panic and there is no evidence of a new wave of BSE or mad cow disease. Wed, 19 Dec 2007 09:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/92320.php An animal which was born before new feed regulations came into force has been confirmed to be infected with mad-cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE), says the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). The agency says the 11-year-old cow from Alberta had not entered the human food or animal feed systems, and the carcass in under CFIA control. Wed, 05 Dec 2007 04:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/90767.php One of the new in vitro tests, called the Standard Scrapie Cell Assay, measures prion infectivity levels in a highly accurate and extremely rapid way, producing results in less than two weeks. The second test, called the Cell Panel Assay, allows researchers to quickly distinguish between several prion strains in various cells lines. Mon, 03 Dec 2007 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/90461.php Rapid diagnostic testing used to check for the presence of prion diseases such as "mad cow disease" might fail to identify some highly infectious samples, researchers have found. Currently, scanning beef or other meat products for possible prion infection involves sampling brain tissue from the animal for abnormally folded prion protein, also called PrP; this form of PrP, which is sticky and hard to degrade, is believed to be the infectious agent behind prion diseases. Mon, 03 Dec 2007 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/90421.php The Fifteenth Annual Report of the National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance Unit was published recently. The report looks back over the period from May 1990 (when the Unit was set up) to 31 December 2006. The report outlines the Unit's work in the clinical surveillance of variant (vCJD), sporadic and iatrogenic CJD. Sun, 25 Nov 2007 00:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/89739.php An effective and sensitive new method for detecting and characterizing prions, the infectious compounds behind diseases like mad cow disease, is now being launched by researchers at Linkoping University in Sweden, among other institutions. Mad cow disease (BSE), which has caused the death of more than 200,000 cattle and 165 people in the U.K., has now abated. But other prion disorders are on the rise, and there is concern that new strains will infect humans. Wed, 26 Sep 2007 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/83506.php Lymph nodes can be crucial for spreading low doses of infective prion agents -- the pathogens responsible for conditions such as scrapie and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease -- into the nervous system, according to new research published in the online open access journal BMC Veterinary Research. Thu, 20 Sep 2007 05:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/82940.php The National Institutes of Health has selected University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) Assistant Professor of Neurology Pedro Fernandez-Funez to receive a five-year, $1.5 million NIH Director's New Innovator Award. NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni officially announced the 29 recipients of the grants, designed to foster young biomedical researchers with bold new ideas, at a symposium at NIH headquarters yesterday, Sept. 19. Sun, 09 Sep 2007 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/81855.php In work originating from the Bavarian Research Cooperation Prions (FORPRION), which ended in 2007, a team led by the scientist Prof. Dr. Christine Leib-Mösch has been able to show that prion proteins may activate endogenous retroviruses in infected brain cells. Sun, 19 Aug 2007 16:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/79897.php Scientists have discovered a new protein that may offer fresh insights into brain function in mad cow disease. "Our team has defined a second prion protein called 'Shadoo', that exists in addition to the well-known prion protein called 'PrP' " said Professor David Westaway, director of the Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases at the University of Alberta. Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/76025.php Researchers have shown that a recently developed laboratory method to amplify prions (Protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification) can be applied to variant CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease). The work was carried out by scientists at the National CJD Surveillance Unit at the University of Edinburgh, the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, Neuropathogenesis Unit and CSL Behring. It is published this month in the Journal of Pathology. The team, led by Dr. Wed, 06 Jun 2007 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/73167.php The Department of Health is today issuing the latest information about the numbers of known cases of Creutzfeldt Jakob disease. This includes cases of variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (vCJD) - the form of the disease thought to be linked to BSE. Tue, 15 May 2007 18:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/70530.php Small regions within prion proteins regulate their ability to cross species barriers Researchers have known for decades that certain neurodegenerative diseases, such as mad cow disease or its human equivalent, Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease, result from a kind of infectious protein called a prion.