Researchers Find New Piece of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Puzzle

-The University of Leeds has found that a protein called glypican-1 plays a key role in the development of BSE.
-This presence of Glypican-1 causes the numbers of abnormal prion proteins to rise.
-When levels of Glypican-1 were reduced in infected cells, the levels of the abnormal prion reduced as well.
-Glypican-1 in this case, acts as a scaffold bringing the forms of both the two forms of the infectious form.
-This discovery has given them the chance to make better treatments for BSE and CJD.

A new treatment route for BSE and its human form CJD could be a step closer based on new results from scientists at the University of Leeds. The team there has found that a protein called Glypican-1 has a big job in the development of BSE. BSE is also known as mad-cow disease, which was a huge problem in England during the late 1980's. It's to be caused by an abnormal form of the prion protein that is present on cells within the nervous system. This experiment has shown that Glypican-1 causes numbers of abnormal prion proteins to rise and when the levels of it were reduced, the levels of the abnormal prion also reduced.