Re:The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
by sndean on Sunday February 10, 2019 @11:42AM
(#19128461)
It does seem like Abeta and prions should be in the same class.
A possible practical reason to keep them separated would be to avoid having various safety committees at X research institution from adding dozens of barriers to already difficult Alzheimer's research. Doing work with prions is a little like doing B. anthracis (Anthrax) research in some places - having to deal with indestructible spores.
Not that those safety measures shouldn't be put in place, but it'd make Alzheimer's/Abeta research slower and more expensive. The jump from BSL-1 to BSL2+/BSL-3 is huge [0].
A possible practical reason to keep them separated would be to avoid having various safety committees at X research institution from adding dozens of barriers to already difficult Alzheimer's research. Doing work with prions is a little like doing B. anthracis (Anthrax) research in some places - having to deal with indestructible spores.
Not that those safety measures shouldn't be put in place, but it'd make Alzheimer's/Abeta research slower and more expensive. The jump from BSL-1 to BSL2+/BSL-3 is huge [0].
[0] https://blink.ucsd.edu/safety/research-lab/biosafety/contain...