Scientists’ breakthrough in CJD battle
Published: August 3, 2005
EDINBURGH scientists have developed a new hospital cleaning method that could stop the spread of the human form of “Mad Cow Disease”, it emerged today.
The infectious particles that cause the condition - linked to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) - are known to be immune to most traditional sterilisation processes.
The particles, known as prions, vary so much from all other known viral and bacterial infections that they can linger on surgical instruments despite sterilisation.
Now academics at Edinburgh University have produced a special technique involving gas that can remove them to levels a thousand times lower than before.
Devised by a team spanning the university’s chemistry, medicine, physics and engineering departments, its believed that it will cut the risk of the spread of CJD in surgical wards.
Professor Robert Baxter, from the School of Chemistry, said: “This new technique is significant because, unlike viral and bacterial pathogens, prions are proteins which are resistant to high temperatures and adhere very strongly to metal surfaces.”
The new technique tackles the particles of each of the various strains of the fatal brain disease, including variant CJD which is linked to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle.
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