WE KNOW that rogue prions cause CJD and mad cow disease, but what normally folded prion proteins do has been a mystery, because experimental mice without them are almost normal.
Now Edward Málaga-Trillo and colleagues at the University of Konstanz in Germany have discovered that depriving zebrafish of prions has a much more obvious effect. This holds out hope for future drug development (PLoS Biology, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000055).
“Blocking one form of the normal prion stops the zebrafish brain developing correctly”
Zebrafish have two versions of the protein. Blocking one stops the brain forming correctly; blocking the other stops…
