Medical News Today
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.
The news is reported in an article in the 2nd January issue of
New Scientist magazine and draws on a study published last month in a December 2007 issue of the
Archives of Neurology by Dr Simon Mead of the Prion Unit at University College London, and colleagues.
What makes this case different is that the woman's genetic make up is different to that of the 160 people who are thought to have died from the disease in the UK.
The 160 people who died of vCJD carried the MM version of a gene that codes for a type of protein known as a prion. Infection by vCJD causes the protein to become misshapen and resistant to break down by enzymes, and it gradually clogs up the brain.
But the woman who recently died carried the VV version of the gene, raising the fear that a new type of vCJD could be emerging.
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