Cow brain disease incubation warning
Monday December 21st, 2009
Britain could be facing another wave of the fatal brain condition linked to so-called "mad cow disease", experts have warned.
The warning comes after the death of a man, who was the first to develop the disease with a particular genetic make-up.
Experts say the new gene is known to be linked to a long incubation period in similar brain diseases - suggesting that others could also be incubating vCJD.
Since 1995
some 167 cases of the disease have been identified in Britain and 200
world-wide. The disease is invariably fatal.
It is thought to have originated in cows, who developed the brain disease BSE from eating contaminated feed in the 1980s.
Writing in the Lancet, Professor John Collinge, who heads the UK MRC prion unit - which investigates the disease - said that until June last year all the cases had a genetic make-up known as MM homozygous, which affects about a third of the population.
This changed when a man of 30 was admitted to hospital with the symptoms of vCJD and died in January this year. His genetic make-up was different, known as MV heterozygous.
Professor Collinge writes: "If individuals with other genotypes are similarly susceptible to developing prion disease after BSE prion exposure, but with longer incubation periods, further cases, which may or may not meet diagnostic criteria for vCJD, would be expected."
He adds that it is also possible that unusual combinations of other genes may also be responsible for people developing the disease.
The Lancet December 19 2009
Tags: Brain & Neurology | Diet & Food | UK News
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