Originally published September 12 2005
Researchers work to make mad cow detection easier
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Researchers have developed a new method that may make it easier to detect mad cow disease in the blood.
Until now, dissecting the brains of victims has offered the only way to detect such brain-wasting diseases in humans.
Researchers led by neurology professor Claudio Soto at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston report they have developed a method of multiplying the number prions in a blood sample so a blood test then can detect them.
Such a test could help prevent the spread of the disease through transfusions and could detect the illness in people or animals before it can be spread to others.
In the 1980s, Britain had an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as mad cow disease, which spread to Europe and other areas.
In addition to improving the safety of the blood supply, a practical test could help find infected people and animals before they show symptoms.
We might be sitting on a time bomb and 20 years from now it could be too late," Soto said in a telephone interview.
"If we know today there are many people infected, companies will start to look for therapies."
Soto's research team infected 18 hamsters with prions.
Scientists used their process to amplify the prions in blood samples from the hamsters.
Not one of the uninfected ones indicated an infection.
Now, Soto said, he is seeking to test animals that have been infected naturally, rather than one injected with the disease.
Eventually, he would like to try it on humans to see if the process makes prions subject to detection.
"We have shown here we can detect (prions) in the blood of experimental animals, the next step is to demonstrate we can do the same with humans and cattle," he said.
Past studies of sheep with scrapie have shown prions in the blood of six-month-old sheep, but not in older sheep, he said.
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