Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Foundation

If you're looking for the latest research news on Prion Disease, you've come to the right place. We've grouped them by category, with the most recent article at the top.

Prion Disease Research

• May 2018 Journal of Virology: Microglia are critical in host defense against prion disease.
  Our thanks to Rob Alvo, BSc, for a plain-language overview of this paper

• July 2019 mBio: Chronic Wasting Disease in Cervids: Implications for Prion Transmission to Humans and Other Animal Species

• 03/05/19 Multibriefs Exclusive: Professor claims cure for CWD, but others aren’t sure

• 02/21/19 Cornell Wildlife Health Mag: Prion Hypothesis for CWD: An Examination of the Evidence

• 02/04/19 Pennsylvania Government Pressroom: State Agencies Issue Statement on Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)

• 02/01/19 Medicalresearch.com: Prions from Brain Detectable in Skin Earlier Than Brain Damage
  Interview with Wen-Quan Zou, M.D., Ph.D., 2017 CJD Grant Recipient

• 01/15/19 WIRED magazine: One Couple's Tireless Crusade to Stop a Genetic Killer

• 11/20/18 National Institutes of Health: Eyes of CJD patients show evidence of prions

• 10/19/18 Response submitted to ProMed by the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center regarding ProMed's recent article suggesting that there is a connection between human prion disease and squirrel brain:

  “The article reproduced recently in ProMed suggested that a US patient developed variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). This diagnosis was based on MRI results that reportedly appeared similar to those of patients with variant CJD (vCJD). However, all other clinical and demographic evidence (triphasic EEG pattern, patient age, disease duration, and subsequently prion protein codon 129 genotype) strongly suggested that this was a case of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD). Indeed, through national human prion disease surveillance, the patient was confirmed through autopsy as sCJD, not vCJD. The reporting of this case as probable vCJD – a disease linked to consumption of beef contaminated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, also known as “mad cow disease”) – and suggesting that this case might be etiologically linked to squirrel consumption is inappropriate and may cause undue alarm.

  “The previous ProMed commentary mentioned a 1997 Lancet report that hypothesized about a potential link between consumption of squirrel brains and CJD; there was no mention of vCJD in that report. Since that brief report, there has been no convincing evidence found suggesting that the consumption of squirrel meat, brain or otherwise, is a risk factor for any prion disease. While prion diseases have been identified in several other types of mammals, they have never been identified in squirrels. Without additional experimental or epidemiological evidence, a link between consumption of squirrel brain and human prion disease is unjustifiably speculative.”

• 6/24/18 Crain's Cleveland Business: Researchers use crowdfunding to fill grant gap

• 4/9/18 CJD Foundation Awards Six Research Grants for 2018

• 2018 Synopses of Recent Studies

• 12/6/17 What finding prion proteins in skin means — a layman’s explanation of a recently reported study 

• 11/23/17 New York Times: Abnormal Proteins Found in Skin of Patients With a Rare Brain Disease

• 11/22/17 Science Translational Medicine: Prion seeding activity and infectivity in skin samples from patients with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease — Orru et al.

• 1/31/17 Serious Science: Prions: Diseases and Treatment — Molecular biologist Byron Caughey on the structure of prions, prion diseases, and their causes and treatment

• 11/23/16 Annals of Neurology: Diagnostic and Prognostic Value of Human Prion Detection in Cerebrospinal Fluid

• 7/16 IFL Science, New Anti-Prion Compound Provides New Hope For Treating Brain-Wasting Disease

• 1/20/16 Science Translational Medicine, Quantifying prion disease penetrance using large population control cohorts

• 8/6/14 National Institutes of Health, NIH and Italian Scientists Develop Nasal Test for Human Prion Disease NIH Multimedia Link

• 8/6/14 MedPage Today, New Methods May Make CJD Testing Easier

• 6/18/14 Science Codex, Self-repairing mechanism can help to preserve brain function in neurodegenerative diseases

• 4/3/14 University of California San Francisco News Center, Daiichi Sankyo and UCSF Announce Collaboration in Drug Discovery Research for Neurodegenerative Diseases

• 3/3/14 Healio Infectious Disease News, Novel prototype assay provides high specificity, sensitivity in detecting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

• 2/2/14 Health Canal, Researchers Discover Breakthrough in Understanding the Secret Life of Prion Molecules

• 2/14 The Lancet Neurology, Doxycycline in Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease: A Phase 2, Randomised, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial

• 11/8/13 2 Minute Medicine, Novel Prion Disease Associated with Diarrhea and Autonomic Neuropathy

• 10/22/13 Laboratory Equipment, Discovery Key to Preventing, Treating Fatal Brain Diseases

• 10/10/13 Fox News Health, Scientists stop brain cells in mice from dying in potential Alzheimer's treatment breakthrough

• 10/9/13 Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Recombinant Human Prion Protein Inhibits Prion Propagation

• 7/31/13 Science Codex, 3-D look at prion may help find cure to brain diseases, University of Alberta work shows

• 6/19/13 American Society for Microbiology, Journal of Virology, Lack of Prion Infectivity in Fixed Heart Tissue from Patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease or Amyloid Heart Disease

• 3/4/13 Scientist Live, Scientists identify molecular system that could help develop potential treatments for conditions such as Alzheimers disease

• 10/1/11 The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Stem Cell Therapy Extends Incubation and Survival Time in Prion-Infected Mice in a Time Window–Dependant Manner

Genetic Prion Disease

• 1/20/16 Science Translational Medicine, “Big data” gets personal

• 10/2/14 CureFFI.org, A cautionary tale of ascertainment bias in genetic disease age of onset

• 2/5/14 NBC News, Gene Tool Delivers Healthy Babies to Mom with Fatal Disease

• 2/4/14 CBS News, Bradley and Amanda Kalinsky share their amazing story, "Mother stops a disease that claimed five generations of family members"

• 2/3/14 The New York Times, Ethics Questions Arise as Genetic Testing of Embryos Increases

• 9/4/13 Prion Alliance, Yes I really want to know, by Sonia Vallabh

Strides for CJD

• 10/14/19 23ABC News (Strides event in Bakersfield, CA) Walk held in memory of late Bakersfield Mayor Harvey Hall
  https://www.turnto23.com/news/local-news/walk-held-in-memory-of-late-bakersfield-mayor-harvey-hall

• 10/07/18 23ABC News (Strides event in Bakersfield, CA) Friends and Family of Harvey Hall help spread CJD awareness
  https://www.turnto23.com/news/local-news/the-now/friends-and-family-of-harvey-hall-help-spread-cjd-awareness?autoplay=true

• September 2018, Larry King interviews Brandi and Jeffrey Evans (Strides event in Beverly Hills, CA), "Larry King Now"
  http://s3.amazonaws.com//oratv-videos/larrykingnow/video-57370/hd1080.mp4

ROCK4RV 2018

• September 22, 2018 News12 Connecticut feature story
  Interview with Mike Vitanza

Mad Cow and Chronic Wasting Disease

• 2/12/15 Scripps Research Institute, Scientists’ ‘Mad Cow’ Discovery Points to Possible Neuron Killing Mechanism Behind Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases

• 10/24/14 Akron Beacon Journal, Chronic wasting disease confirmed in captive deer in Ohio’s Holmes County

• 10/14/14 Trib Live, Another Western Pa. Deer Tests Positive for Chronic Wasting Disease

• 10/2/14 Iowa Department of Agriculture, Test Results From Captive Deer Herd with Chronic Wasting Disease

• 6/12/14 The Associated Press, U.S. company recalls 4,012 pounds of beef products over mad cow concerns

• 3/16/14 Australian Broadcasting Corporation News, US lifts EU beef import ban

• 2/10/14 USA Today, California Company Recalls 8.7 Million Pounds of Meat

• 8/19/13 Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, New Animal Models for Two Prion Diseases

• 2/15/13 Scientific American, Proteins Behind Mad-Cow Disease Also Help Brain Develop

Safety in the Health Care Community

• 3/1/14 Winston-Salem Journal, Local widow details husband’s struggle with CJD

• 2/16/14 Winston-Salem Journal, Lawsuits Common After Discovery of Brain Disease Mishap

• 2/10/14 Winston-Salem Journal, 18 Patients Exposed to Deadly Disease at Forsyth Medical Center

• 10/3/13 Neurology Today, What to Make of News Reports of Possible Exposure to CJD?

• 10/2/13 NBC News, Final fear: Funeral homes refuse victims of brain disease

• 9/21/13 NBC News, Fatal rare brain disease confirmed in N.H. patient; 15 possibly exposed