Children who are exposed to abuse before they are eleven years old, and those exposed to abuse both in childhood and adolescence may be more likely to develop conduct problems (such as bullying or stealing) than those exposed to abuse in adolescence only and those who are not exposed to abuse, according to a study published in the open access journal BMC Psychiatry.
A team of researchers at the Universities of Bath and Bristol examined data on 13,793 children and adolescents (51.6% boys), who were followed from ages four to 17 years, included in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a cohort of children born in South-West England in the early 1990s.
Andreas Bauer, the lead author said: “Conduct problems refer to antisocial behaviors in childhood and/or adolescence, such as fighting, bullying, lying or stealing. They are associated with various negative outcomes, including mental and physical health problems, and it is important to understand their possible causes and to develop effective prevention and intervention programs. Although we know that child abuse is an important factor linked to conduct problems in children, much less is known about when child abuse is most harmful and how it relates to the development of serious behaviour problems over time.”
From the children included in this study, the authors identified three groups who developed elevated levels of conduct problems. There was an early-onset persistent group who developed conduct problems in childhood which continued into adolescence (4.8% of the sample), an adolescence-onset group who developed conduct problems in adolescence (4.5%) and a childhood-limited group who developed conduct problems in childhood only (15.4%). The majority of children (75.3%) did not develop serious conduct problems.
Andreas Bauer said: “We assessed whether abuse was more common in the backgrounds of these three groups than in those who did not develop conduct problems. Our findings showed that abuse was more common in the early-onset persistent group who showed conduct problems in childhood and adolescence, and also in the adolescence-onset group who developed conduct problems in adolescence.”
The authors also looked at the timing of child abuse, comparing those who were exposed to abuse only in childhood or only in adolescence with those exposed to abuse in childhood and adolescence. They found that children exposed to abuse in both childhood and adolescence were 10 times more likely to be in the early-onset persistent conduct problems group and 8 times more likely to be in the adolescence-onset conduct problems group. Abuse in childhood was associated with a 4- to 6-fold increase in risk for showing early-onset persistent or adolescence-onset conduct problems. In contrast, abuse in adolescence only was not linked to an increased risk of showing severe conduct problems.
Conduct problems were measured at ages 4, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, and 17, by asking parents to rate their child’s behavior over the last six months. At age 22, individuals were asked to report physical, psychological, or sexual abuse experienced in childhood (before age 11 years) and adolescence (between ages 11-17 years). Complete data for conduct problems as reported by parents and children, and physical, psychological, and sexual abuse as reported by children was available for 3,127 participants. Out of those, one in five (19.6%) participants reported experiencing some form of abuse, with 11.3%, 8.9%, and 8.1% of participants reporting physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, respectively.
A limitation of the study is that experiences of abuse in childhood and adolescence were measured when the participants were aged 22 years, so there may be issues with recall biases and issues surrounding disclosure of earlier abuse. Relying on parent-reported conduct problems in adolescence may have underestimated the level of behavioral problems, as parents may not be aware of their child’s behavior outside the home.
Andreas Bauer said: “Our results suggest that abuse is more common in the backgrounds of young people with conduct problems and that conduct problems starting in adolescence may be linked to adverse experiences in childhood, rather than being an exaggerated form of teenage rebellion or due to peer pressure. Preventing child abuse may also help protect children from developing serious behaviour problems. However, it is important to note that many young people who experience abuse do not develop conduct problems, and conduct problems can also occur in the absence of child abuse.”
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Slow walkers are almost four times more likely to die from COVID-19, and have over twice the risk of contracting a severe version of the virus, according to a team of researchers from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Leicester Biomedical Research Centre led by Professor Tom Yates at the University of Leicester.
The study of 412,596 middle-aged UK Biobank participants examined the relative association of body mass index (BMI) and self-reported walking pace with the risk of contracting severe COVID-19 and COVID-19 mortality.
The analysis found slow walkers of a normal weight to be almost 2.5 times more likely to develop severe COVID-19 and 3.75 times more likely to die from the virus than normal weight fast walkers.
Professor Yates, Lead Researcher for the study and a Professor of Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour and Health at the University of Leicester said:
“We know already that obesity and frailty are key risk factors for COVID-19 outcomes. This is the first study to show that slow walkers have a much higher risk of contracting severe COVID-19 outcomes, irrespective of their weight.
“With the pandemic continuing to put unprecedented strain on health care services and communities, identifying individuals at greatest risk and taking preventative measures to protect them is crucial.”
A further key finding from this research was that normal weight slow walkers are more at risk for both severe COVID-19 and COVID-19 mortality than fast walkers with obesity. Furthermore, risk was uniformly high in normal weight slow walkers and slow walkers with obesity.
Professor Yates continued:
“Fast walkers have been shown to generally have good cardiovascular and heart health, making them more resilient to external stressors, including viral infection but this hypothesis has not yet been established for infectious disease.
“Whilst large routine database studies have reported the association of obesity and fragility with COVID-19 outcomes, routine clinical databases do not currently have data on measures of physical function or fitness.
“It is my view that ongoing public health and research surveillance studies should consider incorporating simple measures of physical fitness such as self-reported walking pace in addition to BMI, as potential risk predictors of COVID-19 outcomes that could ultimately enable better prevention methods that save lives.”
The study ‘Obesity, walking pace and risk of severe COVID-19 and mortality: analysis of UK Biobank’ was published on 26 February 2021 in the International Journal of Obesity. The analysis was restricted to England and outcomes were assessed during the first wave of the pandemic.
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Researchers at the University of Surrey have found that non-invasive skin swab samples may be enough to detect COVID-19.
The most widely used approach to testing for COVID-19 requires a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, which involves taking a swab of the back of the throat and far inside the nose.
In a paper published by Lancet E Clinical Medicine, chemists from Surrey teamed up with Frimley NHS Trust and the Universities of Manchester and Leicester to collect sebum samples from 67 hospitalised patients — 30 who had tested positive for COVID-19 and 37 who had tested negative. The samples were collected by gently swabbing a skin area rich in sebum — an oily, waxy substance produced by the body’s sebaceous glands — such as the face, neck or back.
The researchers analysed the samples by using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry and a statistical modelling technique called Partial Least Squares — Discriminant Analysis to differentiate between the COVID-19 positive and negative samples.
The Surrey team then found that patients with a positive COVID-19 test had lower lipid levels — or dyslipidemia — than their counterparts with a negative test. The accuracy of the study’s results increased further when medication and additional health conditions were controlled.
Dr Melanie Bailey, co-author of the study from the University of Surrey, said:
“Unfortunately, the spectre of future pandemics is firmly on the top of the agenda for the scientific community. Our study suggests that we may be able to use non-invasive means to test for diseases such as COVID-19 in the future — a development which I am sure will be welcomed by all.”
Matt Spick, co-author of the study from the University of Surrey, said: “COVID-19 damages many areas of metabolism. In this work, we show that the skin lipidome can be added to the list, which could have implications for the skin’s barrier function, as well as being a detectable symptom of the disease itself.”
Dr George Evetts, Consultant in Anaesthesia & Intensive Care Medicine at Frimley Park Hospital, said: “Investigating new methods of diagnosis and surveillance in a new disease such as COVID-19 that has had such a devastating effect on the world is vital. Sebum sampling is a simple, non-invasive method that shows promise for both diagnostics and monitoring of the disease in both a healthcare and a non-healthcare setting.”
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Just one year after the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus a global pandemic, three COVID-19 vaccines are available in the United States, and more than 2 million Americans are receiving shots each day. Americans are eager to get back to business as usual, but experts caution that opening the economy prematurely could allow a potential resurgence of the virus. How foot traffic patterns in restaurants and bars, schools and universities, nail salons and barbershops affect the risk of transmission has been largely unknown.
In an article published in npj Digital Medicine, researcher-physicians from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) used anonymized cell-phone data to build a Business Risk Index, which quantifies the potential risk of COVID-19 transmission in these establishments. The team’s index accounts for both the density of visits and the length of time individuals linger inside, providing a more precise description of the human interactions — and thus risk of viral transmission — going on inside.
“While business traffic pre-pandemic and during statewide shut downs has been studied, business foot traffic and its relationship to COVID-19 transmission in the so-called ‘new normal’ of re-opening has not been well understood.” said corresponding author Ashley O’Donoghue, PhD, Economist, in the Center for Healthcare Delivery Science at BIDMC. “Many forecasting models use anonymized cell-phone mobility data as a broad measure of the movement of residents. But two regions with same levels of mobility will likely see very different levels of COVID-19 transmission if people in one region are diligently practicing social distancing and people in the other are not.”
O’Donoghue and colleagues built their risk index by analyzing trends in foot traffic patterns in more than 1.25 million businesses across eight states from January to June 2020. In the six New England states, New York and California, the team saw a 30 percent drop in high-density foot traffic and long visit lengths to businesses — two factors that can increase the risk of COVID-19 transmission — from the pre-pandemic baseline to April 2020. They saw similar declines when they looked at similar risky foot traffic patterns in restaurants, bars, universities and personal care establishments (which includes hair and nail salons and barbershops). In both analyses, the risk index rose steadily starting in mid-June as states eased restrictions.
Next, using county-level COVID-19 data for the same time period, the team demonstrated that their index could accurately forecast future COVID-19 cases with a one-week lag. The team found that an increase in a county’s average Business Risk Index was associated with an increase in COVID-19 cases per 10,000 people in one week.
“Not all types of mobility contribute equally to increased risk of transmission, so it is important to directly measure human interaction when weighing the costs and benefits of reopening and lifting restrictions on businesses,” said senior author Jennifer P. Stevens, MD, MS, Director of the Center for Healthcare Delivery Science at BIDMC. “Tracking how individuals use different businesses may provide the kind of information policymakers need to re-open different businesses in the safest way possible.”
O’Donoghue, Stevens and team are now building an online decision-support tool that will help policymakers and hospital decision-makers monitor weekly risk in their areas. They have also deployed a prototype of their tool for Massachusetts that is being used by a large tertiary academic medical center in Boston to monitor potential surges in their service area, and their index has been integrated as a feature in a forecasting model for a large health system in Massachusetts.
“Our index can better quantify close human interactions, which are important predictors of transmission and help identify potential disease surges,” said Stevens.
Study co-authors also include Tenzin Dechen, MPH, of BIDMC; Whitney Pavlova, BA, of Pennsylvania State University; Michael Boals, MS, of Requisite Analytics; Manvi Madan, MInfoTech, of Ports of Auckland; Garba Moussa, PhD, of Open-Classroom; Aalok Thakkar, BS, of University of Pennsylvania; and Frank J. DeFalco, BS, of Janssen Research & Development.
Dr. Stevens is supported by grant number K08HS024288 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The authors declare no competing interests.

A Nature study authored by scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute and the University of Hong Kong shows that the leprosy drug clofazimine, which is FDA approved and on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines, exhibits potent antiviral activities against SARS-CoV-2 and prevents the exaggerated inflammatory response associated with severe COVID-19. Based on these findings, a Phase 2 study evaluating clofazimine as an at-home treatment for COVID-19 could begin immediately.
“Clofazimine is an ideal candidate for a COVID-19 treatment. It is safe, affordable, easy to make, taken as a pill and can be made globally available,” says co-senior author Sumit Chanda, Ph.D., professor and director of the Immunity and Pathogenesis Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys. “We hope to test clofazimine in a Phase 2 clinical trial as soon as possible for people who test positive for COVID-19 but are not hospitalized. Since there is currently no outpatient treatment available for these individuals, clofazimine may help reduce the impact of the disease, which is particularly important now as we see new variants of the virus emerge and against which the current vaccines appear less efficacious.”
Promising candidate revealed by screening drug library
Clofazimine was initially identified by screening one of the world’s largest collections of known drugs for their ability to block the replication of SARS-CoV-2. Chanda’s team previously reported in Nature that clofazimine was one of 21 drugs effective in vitro, or in a lab dish, at concentrations that could most likely be safely achieved in patients.
In this study, the researchers tested clofazimine in hamsters — an animal model for COVID-19 — that were infected with SARS-CoV-2. The scientists found that clofazimine lowered the amount of virus in the lungs, including when given to healthy animals prior to infection (prophylactically). The drug also reduced lung damage and prevented “cytokine storm,” an overwhelming inflammatory response to SARS-CoV-2 that can be deadly.
“The animals that received clofazimine had less lung damage and lower viral load, especially when receiving the drug before infection,” says co-senior author Ren Sun, Ph.D., professor at the University of Hong Kong and distinguished professor emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). “Besides inhibiting the virus, there are indications that the drug also regulates the host response to the virus, which provides better control of the infection and inflammation.”
Clofazimine also worked synergistically with remdesivir, the current standard-of-care treatment for people who are hospitalized due to COVID-19, when given to hamsters infected with SARS-CoV-2. These findings suggest a potential opportunity to stretch the availability of remdesivir, which is costly and in limited supply.

#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesRisk Near YouVaccine RolloutGuidelines After VaccinationAdvertisementContinue reading the main storyCovid-19 Live Updates: Worries Over AstraZeneca Doses Upend Europe’s Vaccine DriveModerna begins testing Covid vaccine in babies and young children.March 16, 2021, 7:02 a.m. ETMarch 16, 2021, 7:02 a.m. ETBrittany Siguenza, 5, watching her mother receive a Moderna vaccine dose in Massachusetts on Friday.Credit…Cj Gunther/EPA, via ShutterstockThe drug company Moderna has begun a study that will test its Covid vaccine in children under 12, including babies as young as six months, the company said on Tuesday.The study is expected to enroll 6,750 healthy children in the United States and Canada. “There’s a huge demand to find out about vaccinating kids and what it does,” said Dr. David Wohl, the medical director of the vaccine clinic at the University of North Carolina, who is not involved the study.In a separate study, Moderna is testing its vaccine in 3,000 children ages 12 to 17.Many parents want protection for their children, and vaccinating children should help to produce the herd immunity considered crucial to stopping the pandemic. The American Academy of Pediatrics has called for expansion of vaccine trials to include children.Each child in Moderna’s study will receive two shots, 28 days apart. The study will have two parts. In the first, children aged 2 years to less than 12 may receive two doses of 50 or 100 micrograms each. Those under 2 years may receive two shots of 25, 50 or 100 micrograms.In each group, the first children inoculated will receive the lowest doses and will be monitored for reactions before later participants are given higher doses.Then, researchers will perform an interim analysis to determine which dose is safest and most effective for each age group.Children in part two of the study will receive the doses selected by the analysis — or placebo shots consisting of salt water.The children will be followed for a year, to look for side effects and measure antibody levels that will help researchers determine whether the vaccine is effective. The antibody levels will be the main indicator, but the researchers will also look for coronavirus infections, with or without symptoms.Dr. Wohl said the study appeared well designed and likely to be efficient, but he questioned why the children were to be followed for only one year, when adults in Moderna’s study are followed for two years. He also said he was somewhat surprised to see the vaccine being tested in children so young this soon.“Should we learn first what happens in the older kids before we go to the really young kids?” Dr. Wohl asked. Most young children do not become very ill from Covid, he said, though some develop a severe inflammatory syndrome that can be life threatening.Johnson & Johnson has also said it would test its coronavirus vaccine in babies and young children after testing it first in older children.Pfizer-BioNTech is testing its vaccine in children ages 12 to 15, and has said it plans to move to younger groups; the product is already authorized for use in those 16 and up in the United States.Last month, AstraZeneca began testing its vaccine in Britain in children 6 years and older.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story

#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesRisk Near YouVaccine RolloutGuidelines After VaccinationAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe Ethicist I’m Not Eligible for the Vaccine Yet. Can I Hunt for a Surplus Dose?The magazine’s Ethicist columnist on whether securing a dose for yourself means taking someone else’s spot in line — and more.Credit…Illustration by Tomi UmMarch 16, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ETI’m a college student, and I recently learned that my city is going to be opening up spots on the Health Department website for anyone to be vaccinated if there is a surplus of vaccines. We’re still in the first phase of vaccination, but if I were to look frequently at the vaccination website, I could in theory get an appointment. Since I am a healthy, young person who is not an essential worker or at risk, should I wait to get vaccinated in hopes that someone at greater risk or more essential could take the spot? Or should I keep looking at that website and take the dose as soon as it appears? I’m not taking someone else’s spot, or am I? Ben, MontanaWith anything perishable — whether it’s a head of lettuce or a defrosted carton of Covid-19 vaccines — you can have excess and spoilage amid an overall shortage. The minimum Pfizer vaccine order is a tray with about 1,200 doses; once the vials begin thawing, they have to be used in five days. With all the authorized vaccines, a vial, once opened, must be used within six hours — for Johnson & Johnson’s, it’s two hours at room temperature. Each Pfizer vial has up to six doses. Johnson & Johnson, which has a minimum order of 100 doses, puts five doses in a vial; Moderna will soon put 14 doses in each vial.The point is that vaccines don’t come as “loosies.” Vaccination sites can misjudge the number of sign-ups, and even if everything is properly planned, there are sometimes no-shows. Even when a site has a standby list of qualified recipients, there will be occasional instances in which a vaccine will go to waste unless the eligibility rules are suspended.Perhaps the question isn’t whether you’d be taking someone else’s spot but whose spot you’d be taking. I think of the verse that we apparently owe to the 19th-century English jurist and wit Charles Bowen: The rain, it raineth on the justAnd also on the unjust fella.But chiefly on the just, becauseThe unjust steals the just’s umbrella.In a situation where expiring vaccine doses will be offered to all comers — lest they simply go to waste — you have no reason to think that the dose you eschew will go to someone in greater need; if those concerned with justice demur, the dose may simply go to those not so concerned, assuming it goes to anyone. There’s always going to be a trade-off between getting the country swiftly vaccinated and exquisitely fine-tuning the rollout to reflect each person’s risk profile. If a sporadic all-comers approach is the best way to prevent wasted doses, it isn’t unfair, and you’re not wrong to participate in it.There’s always going to be a trade-off between getting the country swiftly vaccinated and exquisitely fine-tuning the rollout to reflect each person’s risk profile.The Coronavirus Outbreak

Researchers believe they may have discovered a possible cause of a mystery condition that can leave sufferers suddenly unable to walk, talk or see.
It’s hoped the study — led by the University of York and Hull York Medical School and supported by Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Trust — will pave the way for new treatments for Conversion disorder which affects around 800,000 people in the UK alone.
The condition, also known as functional neurological disorder (FND), causes physical symptoms that would appear neurological but doctors can’t find an injury or physical condition to explain them.
Professor Christina van der Feltz-Cornelis from the Department of Health Sciences is leading the Conversion And Neuro-inflammation Disorder Observational (CANDO) study. This pilot study is the first in a program of research to explore how conversion disorder/FND can be caused, and to develop and evaluate new treatments.
The first findings suggest that conversion disorder could be caused by a low grade inflammation process that influences gene expression, which is the process by which the instructions in our DNA are converted into a functional product, such as a protein. Protein does most of the work in cells and is required for the structure, function, and regulation of the body’s tissues and organs.
Professor van der Feltz-Cornelis said: “This is a very difficult condition for people to live with and one which is often overlooked because the medical profession doesn’t have the answers.”
“People living with the condition can become very distressed and isolated, often losing jobs and social networks through being unable to communicate or being unwell. Patients can also suffer from memory and concentration problems.”
“We made the discovery by examining levels of inflammation in blood samples from patients with FND that mimicked stroke-like symptoms. They were found to be higher than normal. Also, microRNA levels in the blood seemed to play a role and this influences the expression of genes in the cell.”
“These preliminary results deserve further exploration and replication in larger samples before we can draw firm conclusions.”
The CANDO researchers hope the new study will help in the development of new treatments, as treatments previously given to people with conversion disorder have often not helped ease the symptoms.
Annie, a patient involved in the CANDO study, says: “It is a relief to suddenly find that there may be a reason for this condition. I can’t wait for treatments that may be developed as a result of this work.”
The paper, “Assessment of Cytokines, microRNA and patient related outcome measures in Conversion Disorder/Functional Neurological Disorder (CD/FND): the CANDO clinical feasibility study” is published in the journal, Brain, Behavior, & Immunity — Health.
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Louisiana State University researchers recently published findings that blight leads to an increased abundance of disease-carrying mosquitoes. The researchers investigated the presence of several mosquito species in two adjacent but socio-economically contrasting neighborhoods in Baton Rouge: the historic Garden District, a high-income neighborhood, and the Old South neighborhood, a low-income area. They found significantly higher adult and larvae abundance of the Asian tiger mosquito (a carrier of Zika and dengue) and higher mosquito habitat availability — particularly discarded tires — in the Old South neighborhood. This indicates that environmental conditions in the low-income neighborhood were most ideal for this mosquito to breed and proliferate.
“These two neighborhoods are very similar in terms of vegetation cover, human population and density of households. One of the main differences is blight. One neighborhood has a lot of blight in the form of abandoned residences, empty lots and mismanaged waste, and the other neighborhood does not. It was the perfect set of conditions for addressing this question,” said Rebeca de Jesús Crespo, lead author and an assistant professor in LSU’s College of the Coast & Environment.
In recent years, the Old South neighborhood has been the focus of revitalization plans by multiple stakeholder groups. The researchers recommended that these blight reduction efforts continue for the benefit of public health.
“This is an area at high risk of these mosquito-borne diseases,” said Madison Harrison, co-author of the publication. “All that it takes for these diseases to spread is for the right vector to be infected with the pathogen and to bite humans at the right point of incubation of said pathogen.”
So far, Zika and dengue are not currently present in the state. However, Louisiana’s climate is ideal for these diseases to spread once introduced.
According to de Jesús Crespo, Harrison was an invaluable addition to the team. Currently, she is a public health master’s student at LSU Health New Orleans.
“In the College of the Coast & Environment, for almost every project that we do, we are integrated and interdisciplinary. We take a broad approach to doing research that is important for solving problems in real time. For this project, it was important to me to include Madison from LSU Health Sciences as well as community stakeholders who could provide their expertise and unique perspectives,” de Jesús Crespo said.
The researchers examined the prevalence of two container-breeding species of mosquitoes that are known to spread disease, the Asian tiger mosquito and the southern house mosquito (a carrier of West Nile virus). They inspected potential larvae habitats (such as discarded tires, discarded Styrofoam cups and snack bags, plant pots and water baths) in publicly accessible locations and calculated the percentage of those that contained larvae. Additionally, they placed adult mosquito traps around the perimeter of some private homes with the permission from the homeowner, in an abandoned house and in an empty lot with trash accumulation in the higher income neighborhood.
They found that the adult population of the southern house mosquito was fairly diffuse, but the lower income neighborhood had significantly higher numbers of Asian tiger mosquito (adults and larvae) and higher numbers of total mosquito larvae. This shows that the presence of discarded container habitats due to neglect provides more breeding grounds for disease-carrying mosquitoes, disproportionately affecting low-income groups.
“I think everybody can agree that urban blight is a problem we need to solve here in Baton Rouge. Mosquito risk is one of those factors that could impact human health and that adds another level of importance with that,” de Jesús Crespo said.

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For the first time, researchers have pinpointed what causes normal proteins to convert to a diseased form, causing conditions like CJD and Kuru.
The research team, from Imperial College London and the University of Zurich, also tested a way to block the process, which could lead to new drugs for combatting these diseases.
The research concerned prion diseases — a group of brain diseases caused by proteins called prions that malfunction and ‘misfold’, turning into a form that can accumulate and kill brain cells. These diseases can take decades to manifest, but are then are aggressive and fatal.
They include Kuru, mad cow disease and its human equivalent Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), and a heritable condition called fatal familial insomnia.
While the normal, healthy version of prions and the pathogenic (disease-causing) version have been characterised, the intermediate step, when one transforms to the other, was previously unknown.
Now, in a paper published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research team have isolated this intermediate step, determining the mechanism that turns normal prions into their pathogenic form. The research was supported by Alzheimer’s Research UK.