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Mad-cow test gets simple
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SCIENTISTS reported on Wednesday they had made a step towards a simple and non-invasive test for spotting the agent that causes mad-cow disease and its fatal human form, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
One of the biggest worries about the mad-cow scare is knowing how many people may be incubating Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which turns the brain spongey.
At the moment, the only way of knowing for sure is to conduct a biopsy on brain tissue, after death, or tonsil tissue, if available, to look for the presence of a rogue protein called a prion.
Writing in the March issue of the monthly journal Nature Medicine, researchers at Scotland's Roslin Institute say they have identified a protein that seems to provide an excellent telltale of early infection.
Prion-infected sheep and cattle were found to have a dramatic decrease in a specific DNA form of a protein called erythroid differentiation-related factor (EDRF) in the spleen, tonsils, appendix and lymph nodes.
These are the places where the prion lurks before spreading to the spinal cord and the brain.
The EDRF marker "is easily detectable in readily accessible tissues", the scientists said.
In addition, there may be a way for spotting EDRF in the blood, as the marker was spotted in blood sampled from sheep which had bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) but had yet to display the symptoms of the disease, they said.
(SD-Agencies)
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