New evidence has emerged about the role played by the prion protein, the protein which, when it goes wrong, brings on the neurodegenerative condition, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), the human form of Mad Cow disease. A team at the University of Tokyo report in Nature that the normal prion protein has a role in preventing nerve cell death. The finding is important because nerve cell death is a key feature of CJD.
An injury to the brain also disturbs the brain's ability to recognise and repair DNA damage, according to new research at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Centre. The team last year discovered that brain cells continued to die for months after a head trauma. The new work study shows that the trauma somehow alters the way that cells recognise DNA damage and attempt DNA repair. They report their findings in the Journal of Neurochemistry .