Question

There is a rare illness called mad cow disease. It is also called as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). This disease affects cow's nervous system causing a cow to act strangely. According to scientists, a person is at higher risk of getting a human form of the disease, CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease), when he/she eats BSE-infected meat. You have studied various disease-causing agents. Which agent do you think is responsible for this rare disease for which there is no treatment yet?

Answer 1

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy

1. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is also called as Mad cow disease.
2. It is caused due to an infectious protein called a prion.

Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease

1. Consumption of the meat of an infected cow causes CJD in humans.
2. Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) is caused in humans due to the infectious protein called prions.
3. Prions are protein particles which fold and unfold at different conditions and cause the normal proteins of the brain to fold abnormally.
4. This affects the structure of the brain which makes the patient act strangely.
5. The disease causes the death of the neurons and leads to degeneration of the brain by forming pores.