Mad cow protein may regulate diabetes

A dangerous protein that causes Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (more commonly known as mad cow disease), could have a role to play in regulating blood sugar levels and also affect the way in which type 1 diabetes develops.
The team who conducted the study, from Ottawa Health Research Institute, pointed out that there was no clear link between Creutzfeld-Jakob disease and diabetes. Mad cow disease is caused by a deformed version of the protein, whereas the influence on diabetes has only been recognised in the protein with a healthy form.
The team have drawn further conclusions about the way in which the brain causes diabetes in the body . One cell biologist involved in the study said: “Certainly in high-risk families there is an increased risk of developing the disease. So in those families you could think of doing something in a preventive way. With better knowledge of how the disease begins, you could give people a heads-up of what to avoid.”
The study was published in pathology journal Laboratory Investigation .