NIAID scientists assess transmission risk of familial human prion diseases to mice

(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Familial human prion diseases are passed within families and are associated with 34 known prion protein mutations. To determine whether three of the unstudied mutations are transmissible, scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) exposed research mice to brain samples from three people who died from a familial prion disease. After observing the mice for about two years, they found two of the mutat...