The British researchers have developed a blood test for the human version of mad cow disease. The bust through test could transfigure the diagnosis and screening of the deadly brain disorder and discover carriers. At present, patients alleged of having human form of BSE have to endure a sequence of test, counting a brain biopsy to corroborate a diagnosis.
Variant Creutzfeldt – Jakob disease (vCJD) is the human alike of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), which affects cattle. The infirmity was believed to have passed from cattle to humans by the consumption of beef products containing contaminated meat. Due to CJD, a spongy texture known as spongiform encephalopathy is developed in the brain.
The early symptoms may include depression, anxiety and tingling pain. The disease is not identified until other symptoms occur like difficulty in movement or loss of mental abilities. Currently there is no cure for CJD and the diagnosis is frequently made when patients get incurably ill.
The archetype blood test developed by researchers from the Medical Research Council (MRC) is ten thousand times more sensitive than any studied before. This test could potentially continue to let blood services to screen the population for vCJD infection, assess how many people are silent carriers and prevent onward transmission of the disease, explained Lead author Dr Graham Jackson from the MRC.
The new test was undertaken on one hundred and ninety blood sample of which twenty ne had variant CJD. The success rate of the test was seventy-one percent. A test that gives an early diagnosis will become even more significant if treatments for the disease become available.
People can port the infectious proteins known as prions, thought to spread the disease for years without experiencing any symptoms. Since first case recorded in 1995 there have been one hundred and seventy suspected deaths from vCJD in UK. It is believed people that with certain hereditary structures could nurture the disease for up to fifty years.