WE KNOW that rogue prions cause CJD and mad cow disease, but what normally folded prion proteins do has been a mystery, because experimental mice without them are almost normal.
Now Edward Málaga-Trillo and colleagues at the in Germany have discovered that depriving zebrafish of prions has a much more obvious effect. This holds out hope for future drug development (PLoS Biology, ).
“Blocking one form of the normal prion stops the zebrafish brain developing correctly”
Zebrafish have two versions of the protein. Blocking one stops the brain forming correctly; blocking the other stops…
