Pioneering CJD treatment to be tested in patient for the first time

Written by Martha Powell, Future Science Group

A pioneering treatment, developed by researchers at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Prion Unit at University College London (UK), is to be given to a patient with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) for the first time. CJD currently has no treatment; it is always fatal and most patients have a rapid decline, with mortalities often occurring just 6 weeks after diagnosis. This new experimental treatment, an antibody termed PRN100, is designed to prevent abnormal prion proteins from attaching to heathy proteins in the brain, as John Collinge, Director of the MRC Prion Unit, explained: “The treatment is an artificially manufactured antibody which...

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