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Scientists Block CJD-Like Illness in Mice

Weekly injections of an experimental treatment protected mice from developing a brain illness similar to mad cow disease, according to an article in the March 6, 2003, issue of the journal Nature. The injections of experimental antibodies were administered after the mice had been injected with disease-causing "prions" (the infectious agents that transmit the disease). Untreated mice developed the illness and died.

The research was done at Imperial College London and University College London. Although still in very early stages, it may suggest a possible new avenue of research on Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), the human version of mad cow disease.

CJD is a rare neurological disease for which there is no treatment and no cure. It has been of particular interest in the United Kingdom in recent years because more than 100 cases there have been linked to eating contaminated beef (meat from cattle that were infected by mad cow disease.

In this study, the experimental treatment appeared promising, but it failed to work after the mice had already developed symptoms and when the disease-causing prions were injected directly into the brain.