new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob diseases there a link with bovine spongiform encephalopathy?

ABSTRACT

A new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease [V-CJD] has been recently described. V-CJD is charaderized by early onset, atypical clinical presentation and the presence of multiple plaques that consist of prion protein in the affected regions of the brain. A link between V-CJD and bovine spongiform encephalopathy [BSE] has been suspected. The currently available data, analyzed in this review, suggest hat the likelihood of BSE transmission to humans is very low. However, such a possibility cannot be excluded unequivocally and additional studies are required