Nanobotmodels medical animation studio presents education video about prion disease | WPN World People News

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a degenerative brain disorder caused by misshapen brain proteins. In the early stages, symptoms often appear similar to those of other dementias, making CJD hard to diagnose. Although a rare disease, it affects approximately one in one million people worldwide and invariably proves fatal.

One type of prion disease in humans, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), is acquired by eating beef products obtained from cattle with prion disease. In cows, this form of the disease is known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or, more commonly, "mad cow" disease. Another example of an acquired human prion disease is kuru, which was identified in the South Fore tribe in Papua New Guinea. The disorder was transmitted when tribe members ate the tissue of affected people during cannibalistic funeral rituals.

A prion in the Scrapie form (PrPSc) is an infectious agent composed of protein in a misfolded form. And it may lead to CJD appear. Abnormal prions cause neurodegenerative disease by aggregating extracellularly within the central nervous system to form plaques known as amyloid, which disrupt the normal tissue structure. This disruption is characterized by "holes" in the tissue with resultant spongy architecture due to the vacuole formation in the neurons. Other histological changes include astrogliosis and the absence of an inflammatory reaction. While the incubation period for prion diseases is relatively long (5 to 20 years), once symptoms appear the disease progresses rapidly, leading to brain damage and death. Neurodegenerative symptoms can include convulsions, dementia, ataxia (balance and coordination dysfunction), and behavioural or personality changes.

Nanobotmodels medical animation studio used most sophisticated molecular software to display prion transformation processes and prion distribution and aggregation in action. First of all - thanks to ePMV and autoPACK plugin, developed by Graham Jonson.

cellPack is a specialized version of autoPack designed to pack biological components together. The current version is optimized to pack molecules into cells with biologically relevant interactions to populate massive cell models with atomic or near-atomic details. Components of the algorithm pack transmembrane proteins and lipids into bilayers, globular molecules into compartments defined by the bilayers (or as exteriors), and fibrous components like microtubules, actin, and DNA.

Source: Nanotechnology Now