Advancing Prion Science: Guidance for the National Prion Research Program

In Advancing Prion Science, the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Assessment of Relevant Science recommends priorities for research and investment to the Department of Defense’s National Prion Research Program (NPRP). Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), also called prion diseases, are invariably fatal neurodegenerative infectious diseases that include bovine spongiform encephalopathy (commonly called mad cow disease), chronic wasting disease, scrapie, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. To develop antemortem diagnostics or therapies for TSEs, the committee concludes that NPRP should invest in basic research specifically to elucidate the structural features of prions, the molecular mechanisms of prion replication, the mechanisms of TSE pathogenesis, and the physiological function of prions’ normal cellular isoform. Advancing Prion Science provides the first comprehensive reference on present knowledge about all aspects of TSEsâ€"from basic science to the U.S. research infrastructure, from diagnostics to surveillance, and from prevention to treatment.

• Front Matter
• Executive Summary
• Summary
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Prion Diseases: An Overview
• 3 Basic Biomedical Research on Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies
• 4 Diagnostics for Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies
• 5 Testing Blood for Evidence of Agents of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies
• 6 Surveillance for Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies in the United States
• 7 Assessment of Strategies to Prevent and Treat Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies
• 8 Infrastructure for Research on Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies
• 9 Risks of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies to the U.S. Military
• Appendix A: Agendas of Open Sessions of Committee Meetings
• Appendix B: Biographical Sketches
• Glossary
• Color Plates