GSK and MRC seeking CJD cure?

John Collinge, head of the Medical Research Council's Prion Unit at StMary's Hospital in London, UK, has revealed that he is working in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline to find a treatment for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Prof Collinge told the World Congress of Neurology meeting in London recently that project involves trawling through GSK's compound libraries for agents that can interfere with the process of prion replication. Prior animal studies have suggested that if prion replication in the brain can be reduced below a certain threshold, the remainder are eliminated from the body, raising the prospects of a cure for CJD.