PATHOLOGISTS HAVE UNCOVERED A potential clue into the mechanism by which infectious prions cross the human intestinal epithelial barrier and have illuminated how individuals consuming prion-tainted beef develop variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), the human form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or "mad cow" disease).A new study shows that infectious prion proteins are able to avoid degradation by digestive enzymes found in the stomach and can cross the intestinal lining by piggybacking on ferritin, a protein normally absorbed by the intestine and abundant in most meat. The study appears in the December 15 issue of the Journal ofNeuroscience (http: //www .jneurosci.org/).
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