According to the researchers, the human prion protein has a very similar shape to its counterpart in mice and hamsters, which had already been decoded. Differences were found in that part of the protein which might well be the starting point for the pathological clumping associated with the disease.
Prion proteins are endogenous to humans and animals.
In fatal diseases such as BSE or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, they are excreted in the brain in clumps. The researchers hope that cracking the structural code will help them in investigating the protein's functions and possible mal- or dysfunctions.