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Medicine Science

Another Neurodegenerative Disease Linked To a Prion 53

MTorrice writes: A new study concludes that a brain protein causes the rare, Parkinson's-like disease called multiple systems atrophy (MSA) by acting like a prion, the misbehaving type of protein infamously linked to mad cow disease. The researchers say the results are the most definitive demonstration to date that proteins involved in many neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, exhibit prion-like behavior: They can misfold into shapes that then coax others to do the same, leading to protein aggregation that forms neurotoxic clumps. If these other diseases are caused by prion-like proteins, then scientists could develop treatments that slow or stop disease progression by designing molecules that block prion propagation.
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Another Neurodegenerative Disease Linked To a Prion

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 04, 2015 @02:55AM (#50455967)

    For a moment I thought it read "Another Neurodegenerative Disease Linked to Porn". I was very concerned during that moment.

  • by SumDog ( 466607 ) on Friday September 04, 2015 @03:01AM (#50455979) Homepage Journal

    I wonder how much Folding@Home helped contribute to discovering this.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Zero. It was 100% funded by big bad Pharma that you guys all claim to hate.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by PopeRatzo ( 965947 )

        Zero. It was 100% funded by big bad Pharma that you guys all claim to hate.

        Wrong. It was funded by the customers of big bad Pharma.

        Remember, all corporate research is ultimately funded by customers. Before you go giving them some humanitarian award. don't forget it's always the customers that pay the bill.

        • by khallow ( 566160 )

          Wrong. It was funded by the customers of big bad Pharma.

          Customers didn't choose to fund the research, hence, it's not their baby. And are we going to credit the banks too? They fondled that funding a little bit, sometimes between customer and pharma company. Maybe some drug dealers of the illegal sort? Fast food restaurants? ATM machines?

          There's a saying that I think applies here. Money has no provenance. It doesn't matter where the money came from. The people who decided to fund the research are the ones who should be credited for funding the research.

          • Customers didn't choose to fund the research, hence, it's not their baby.

            It's not their "baby", but it's their money.

            • Really? Did they print it themselves?

              • Really? Did they print it themselves?

                No, they spent it themselves.

                Why is it so hard for people to understand that a consumer economy is funded by the consumers? That the labor and productivity and earnings of people pay all the bills? Is this some artifact left over from the supply-side economics of the '80s?

                No exceptions.

                • by tnk1 ( 899206 )

                  You're missing the point, though.

                  Yes, that money passed through the hands of the customers. The customers passed that money to the pharmaceutical company for a good (drugs) that they wanted. That money then entered the account of the company which funded the research. The consumers didn't choose that path for what used to be their money.

                  Now, if the consumers had a *choice*, that money could have been spent on research for prion-like diseases, but more likely, it would have been spent on a trip to the Bah

                • by khallow ( 566160 )

                  Why is it so hard for people to understand that a consumer economy is funded by the consumers?

                  There's more to an economy than just consumers. By merely using the term "consumer" you imply the existence of producers who produce the goods and services which are consumed by the consumers. Why is it so hard to credit the people who make decisions with the consequences, good and bad, of those decisions?

                  That the labor and productivity and earnings of people pay all the bills?

                  Which is tangential to your assertion of a consumer economy. One doesn't speak of the labor, productivity, or earnings of a consumer. A consumer consumes by definition and consumption is not dependent on t

                  • For example, what's the good or service consumed in stock trading and who actually consumes it?

                    I agree. It is merely a mechanism of siphoning money from those who work to those who own.

        • Before you go giving them some humanitarian award. don't forget it's always the customers that pay the bill.

          This is so completely wrong. The customers paid for a drug. They got the drug, and now the money they paid for it isn't theirs. Big bad pharma then took the money that belonged to them and paid for the research.

          Your claim only holds water if the customers had a choice (yes, I'll pay $5 for the drug, and $5 to fund future research!) and chose to invest in research. They didn't.

          • This is so completely wrong. The customers paid for a drug. They got the drug, and now the money they paid for it isn't theirs. Big bad pharma then took the money that belonged to them and paid for the research.

            Let me know when the day comes that a pharmaceutical company chooses to spend money on research and not recoup it from consumers, plus profit.

            It's always consumers that pay, in front or at the end, it's always consumers.

            • That's not relevant. My employer paid for my labor. What I do with the money once it's mine isn't the responsibility or to the credit of my employer. What a pharmaceutical company does with their profits once they belong to them are in exactly the same way not to the credit of their customer.

              You can keep following that chain back indefinitely. It's not really the consumer's money, it's their employers, or their governments, or whatever. It's a nonsensical view.

        • by pnutjam ( 523990 )
          Wait!!
          That talking point is only to be used for discussing fees and taxes. Get with the program.
    • Folding at home caused it!

  • hah (Score:4, Funny)

    by sociocapitalist ( 2471722 ) on Friday September 04, 2015 @03:12AM (#50456005)

    So my grampa was right - too much pron makes you blind!

  • Stanley Pruisner (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SecurityGuy ( 217807 ) on Friday September 04, 2015 @09:36AM (#50457223)

    It's interesting for me to see this guy's name come up. I remember reading a fairly derogatory article about him in Scientific American in the 80s, all but calling him a fraud. Sometimes the "fraud" is proven right. Worth remembering.

    • Not worth remembering AT ALL. The full force and credit of the mainstream media is NEVER used to discredit people working on projects that might cause embarrassment to the establishment, or worse find simple root-cause explanations for ailments that could have their symptoms managed with expensive drugs. Never, ever. Your example is the one and only time one of these crackpot, terrorist, conspiracy-theorist, tinfoil-hat frauds has ever been proven right.

      sarcasm off

      It's definitely worth remembering, and

    • Mm. The prion work has been largely supported. However, he was not the first person to originate the concept of an infectious protein, and there's an argument to be made that his primary contribution to the field was the name "prion".

      I wouldn't disregard his work, but double check everything. (A former labmate in a previous lab went toe to toe against him for her dissertation work - and totally won, but watching him try to bash by means of his position when he just didn't have the data was pretty unsettling

  • They thought they could get away with a defective product - oh wait - the culprit is a PRION, not a PRIUS! Nvm...

  • Sorry someone had to say it.

    But really how do we get to "scientists could develop treatments that slow or stop disease progression by designing molecules that block prion propagation."

    from "Another Neurodegenerative Disease Linked To a Prion"

    Does having more than one disease use the same vulnerability make it easier to fix somehow?

    • Right now there are no drugs that stop or even slow Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. And that's not for a lack of trying. There have been several notable failures recently--drugs that went to clinical trials and showed no effects in patients. These drugs were designed before this idea that all these diseases were due to prionlike mechanisms started to pick up steam in the field. So now that there have been some fairly big papers suggesting that prionlike proteins are the cause, people can start looking at new de
  • If you define viruses as a life form, then I think prions ought to be considered a life form. They work by coaxing something else into reproducing themselves.

    I'm probably not the first person to have thought about this. To me, it sounds like this could be a model for theories of abiogenesis.

    • But prions don't actually reproduce--they already exist in our brains. All mammals have prion proteins in their brain. The propagation starts when one of these normally folded one misfolds, or a misfolded one gets into the brain from some other source. Then it causes the existing proteins to misfold. No new molecules are created in this process. In fact, a disease form of a prion is the exact same molecule as a healthy form. It's just a change in shape. Viruses don't hit on all the hallmarks of life, and pr
    • Only if you consider an automatic traffic gate a life form. It coaxes people to build more by letting cars into the parking garage until it is full!
      Otherwise ... No.

Reality must take precedence over public relations, for Mother Nature cannot be fooled. -- R.P. Feynman

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