from the Oh-that-explains-everything dept.
A researcher at Nankai University in Tianjin, China has found a link between degenerative brain diseases and prions. The work is described in this press release.
"This suggests a common molecular mechanism underlying the initiation stages of sporadic Alzheimer's disease and both sporadic and genetic prion diseases," says the study's lead researcher, Chi Ming Yang, Ph.D., a professor of chemistry at Nankai University. The research indicates that a source of prion-generated diseases may be damage to normal proteins caused by free radicals.