Yet another hypothesis suggests these diseases may be caused by the actual conversion of normal prions into rogue prions—that the act of the conversion may produce a toxic byproduct, an intermediate form, or may deplete a factor that is crucial to brain-cell survival (36, 37). Giovanna Mallucci and colleagues at the Institute of Neurology in London have suggested that the accumulation of rogue prions does not kill nerve cells but is a symptom of the diseases. Their studies claim to have found a method of halting this conversion process, which would offer great potential for the development of a diagnostic test and a vaccine against the diseases. Their studies found that shutting off conversion actually allows brains to recover. These researchers and Adriano Aguzzi’s team at the University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland are now looking for the fatal factor.
Could the cases of BSE or CJD have come from eating contaminated meat? Could they have resulted from insecticide and manganese or dioxin exposure, either directly or after passage through animal products? Could chemical exposure and contaminated food have interacted to produce the disease? If people know they have been exposed to a chemical, such as organophosphates (or dioxin), or maybe lived in an area that had been sprayed, or used it as a pesticide around the house or as a product on their cats or dogs, they should consider avoiding food that might be contaminated and also avoid manganese. Their prions may possibly have been primed for the disease.
Continue to the Next Section --> Conclusion
|Introduction|Rendering|Controversy|Causes|Prions|Conclusion|References|
