4 ms·

Questions. > "We discovered the novel, disease-modifying therapeutic candidate SAK3, which, in our studies, rescued neurons in most protein-misfolding, neurode

Questions. > "We discovered the novel, disease-modifying therapeutic candidate SAK3, which, in our studies, rescued neurons in most protein-misfolding, neurodegenerative diseases." Grepping for Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (cjd) and prion yielded nothing. And yet we also have research [1] [2] claiming a function for beta amyloid, implying that the protein's folding is a favorable outcome. For those more well informed than me on these topics, could this mechanism present value against prion-driven misfolding? And is there a rift in consensus over whether beta amyloid is a misfolded protein? I recognize that both of these cases are very, very different in that prions perpetuate the misfolding whereas beta amyloid isn't known to do so. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5505565/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5505565/ [2] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/harder-evidence-builds-that-viruses-play-a-role-in-alzheimers/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/harder-evidence-b...

wombatmobile 5y ago
CJD is extremely rare in humans, so it's easy to understand why AD and LBD would be priorities. But CJD does manifest endogenously in sheep, so they could give it a go in vitro and in vivo. That might be more informative than the mouse disease models, which are not true analogs of the human disease forms.
- wrycoder 5y ago
  It’s extremely rare because we take extreme measures to make sure it stays rare. When you dress out your deer or squirrel, make sure to follow current recommendations.
  - akiselev 5y ago
    Has anyone ever taught a cat to properly dress a squirrel? Think I'm going to have to move back to disposable utensils when feeding them....
    - wrycoder 5y ago
      Cats don’t seem to go after the nerve tissues on animals they kill. But, they have other diseases, so we’re careful to keep the cat dish separate from the rest of the dishes.
      - akiselev 5y ago
        The only bits my cats leave are pieces of the digestive tract - I don't know the first thing about anatomy but it looks like kidneys and intestines. They've only caught a few things big enough that they can't eat it in one sitting (or they try anyway and throw it all back up) "Fortunately" squirrel screams are the worst so I can usually rescue them before the meal begins. Literally just happened 20 minutes ago...

wombatmobile 5y ago

CJD is extremely rare in humans, so it's easy to understand why AD and LBD would be priorities. But CJD does manifest endogenously in sheep, so they could give it a go in vitro and in vivo. That might be more informative than the mouse disease models, which are not true analogs of the human disease forms.

wrycoder 5y ago
It’s extremely rare because we take extreme measures to make sure it stays rare. When you dress out your deer or squirrel, make sure to follow current recommendations.
- akiselev 5y ago
  Has anyone ever taught a cat to properly dress a squirrel? Think I'm going to have to move back to disposable utensils when feeding them....
  - wrycoder 5y ago
    Cats don’t seem to go after the nerve tissues on animals they kill. But, they have other diseases, so we’re careful to keep the cat dish separate from the rest of the dishes.
    - akiselev 5y ago
      The only bits my cats leave are pieces of the digestive tract - I don't know the first thing about anatomy but it looks like kidneys and intestines. They've only caught a few things big enough that they can't eat it in one sitting (or they try anyway and throw it all back up) "Fortunately" squirrel screams are the worst so I can usually rescue them before the meal begins. Literally just happened 20 minutes ago...