September 21, 2004

Japanese Discovery May Help Fight Mad Cow Disease
 

A group of Japanese researchers claim they have discovered a protein-unfolding factor that they hope will be used to combat mad cow disease and other protein-caused malignant diseases.

The discovery of the factor named "Unfoldin" was made by a group led by Naomi Hachiya with the National Institute of Neuroscience in Kodaira.

"Unfoldin" unfolds abnormal prion protein, which is the chief cause of mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. It has been linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the researchers said.

The protein-unfolding factor is expected to be used to tackle those diseases as the abnormal structure of prions, once unfolded, will be resolved by enzymes in the body.

The researchers said the scissor-like factor they found in yeast cells also unfolds and makes corded other types of protein that cause Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease.

It is the first time a factor that can unfold any type of protein structure has been discovered, they said.

Kazuo Kuwata, who heads the Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases at Gifu University, said the discovery has tremendous application potential.