sea-maid submitted, created time 8 months 1 week (www.jcb.org)

The results of recent investigatoins suggest that normal prions might exert their protective effect on neurons by switching off a particular subset of NMDA receptors that contain a subunit called NR2D. The work also suggests a mechanism for the brain damage caused by prion diseases. Malformed prions coax normal molecules to misfold. As the amount of normal protein falls, neurons lose their protectors and become more vulnerable to death by overstimulation.

1 comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: neurons brain damage NRD2 Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease NMDA prions