New research funded mainly through the Wellcome Trust with additional support from the Medical Research Council shows that a new treatment route for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and its human form Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (CJD) could be a step closer. The research carried out by scientists at the University of Leeds was published today (November 20) in PLoS Pathogens.

The team have found that a protein called Glypican-1 plays a key role in the development of BSE - otherwise known as Mad Cow Disease.

BSE is known to be caused by an infectious and abnormal form of the prion protein which is present on cells within the nervous system. But scientists have been unclear as to what causes the prions to become abnormal.

The new research from Leeds' Faculty of Biological Sciences provides part of the answer…