Diseases Caused by a Misfolded Protein

Diseases Caused by a Misfolded Protein

 Mad cow disease which is in medical terms known as Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is not produced by any microorganism like bacteria or virus, but  by a misfolded protein in the brain termed as prion.

Cause and effect on brain

The actual reason for the conversion prion to misfolded protein is still unknown. In this diseases the cell of the brain beomes very weak and the brain has a spong like  look or appearance.due to the weakening or deterioration  loss of mental function occur and the cow acts strangely that why this diseae is also nown as mad cow disease. This disease is fatal and not cureable but this dises is not contagious or trammissible.  

Time for first exposure

This disease require several years to show its symptoms or signs of diseases but after this it developed very rapidly. Misfolded proteins also causes other disease too which have symptoms similar to that of the mad cow daises.

First time reported.

 It is believed that mad cow disease for the first time reported in the  U.K.  In 1985.it is believed that the cow got the disease by eating bone meal made from scrapie-infected sheep.

 The  human  form  of  the  disease

 Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD),   is consider to the human form of the disease. It is very rare and apparently arises spontaneously. Accoding to the research average age of the person with dis daises or CJD is 64.

Modern research

However further research was done and in 1994 in the U.K several cases of the disease appeared. The persons suffering from this disease now reported uptill now are 200.  The most recent research have shown that this  new  variant  Creutzfeldt–Jakob  disease  (vCJD)  is  triggered  by  eating  meat  obtained of an animal infected with the disease.