A vaccine can hold off the development of fatal brain disease in a group of mice.

Prion diseases are a group of degenerative brain disorders characterised by dementia and abnormal limb movements. The best known is new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) which is the human form of 'mad cow' disease. There is no cure for CJD and hardly any treatment that can delay its relentless course. The diseases are caused by infectious proteins known as prions which trigger the destruction of brain tissue - although it's not exactly known how this happens.

But New York University researchers have taken an important step towards a therapy for CJD. They have injected mice designed to develop prion disease with a vaccine based upon the prion protein itself. This was shown to produce antibodies against prion protein, and these were able to delay the onset of the disease. This is a useful basis on which to continue developing a vaccine that humans can use to protect themselves against these fatal and unusual brain diseases.

Source

American Journal of Pathology July 2002