NIH scientists and collaborators find prion protein in skin of CJD patients

(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) NIAID scientists and collaborators at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have detected abnormal prion protein in the skin of several people who died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). The scientists also exposed healthy mice to skin extracts from two CJD patients, and all developed prion disease. The study results raise questions about the possible transmissibility of prion diseases via medical procedures involving sk...