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New form of mad cow disease detected Italian researchers have discovered a new form of mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE). Salvatore Monaco of the University of Verona, Italy, and colleagues uncovered three lines of evidence suggesting that the condition is a distinct form of BSE [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, published online Feb. 17, http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0305777101]. In brains from two cows, the researchers found amyloid plaques, which are not seen in typical BSE cases. Also, the distribution of misfolded prions in the two brains was entirely different from that in typical BSE cases. In addition, the protease-resistant fragment of the prions had a lower molecular mass than did fragments of prions causing typical BSE. The pattern of amyloid plaques in the cattle brains was similar to that in humans with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). The new form of BSE can be detected with the rapid tests now used in Europe and Japan. The authors say their findings suggest that some cases of sporadic CJD could be caused by meat from infected cattle. |
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