So far, 160 people in the UK are known to have died from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, but all of them have had the MM variant of the gene that makes prions - the proteins which become misshapen when the disease takes hold and fatally clog up the brain. About 40 per cent of the UK population carry the MM variant, which occurs when two copies of the amino acid methionine are present at a specific site in the prion gene.
Now, a similar but not identical case of vCJD has killed a 39-year-old woman with the VV variant of the gene, which carries two valine amino acids at the same position
I find this sort of thing so scary. Freakish scary. I was in England for a brief stay and I think I had some beef there? I hope not. I sort of remember that poor Japanese guy who visited and later died from vCJD.
Has vCJD been found much outside of England?
Now, a similar but not identical case of vCJD has killed a 39-year-old woman with the VV variant of the gene, which carries two valine amino acids at the same position
I find this sort of thing so scary. Freakish scary. I was in England for a brief stay and I think I had some beef there? I hope not. I sort of remember that poor Japanese guy who visited and later died from vCJD.
Has vCJD been found much outside of England?
