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Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease 克雅氏病 Breaking down the barrier 攻破屏障 A glimmer of hope for a drug that treats diseasecaused by prions 药物治疗朊病毒感染疾病的一线希望 THE epidemic of mad-cow disease in people that some forecast in the 1990s has not,fortunately, come to pass. But Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, to give its proper name, is still anasty illness that humanity would be better off without. 时至今日，疯牛病没有像上世纪90年代的某些预言说的那样在人群中流行，真是幸运。这种严重损害人类性情的疾病的准确名称叫克雅氏病，治疗起来仍然棘手。 It is also a strange illness. 克雅氏病是一种奇怪的疾病。 CJD and a handful of similarneurological conditions are caused by the misfolding of a particular protein that is found inthe membranes of certain nerve cells. 该病以及类似的一些神经症状是由于某种神经细胞的细胞膜上的一个特殊蛋白发生错误折叠所致。 The strangeness is that the misfolded protein, known as a prion, somehow catalyses othermolecules of the protein to misfold in the same way. 这种错误折叠的蛋白称为朊病毒，令人奇怪的是它可以催化其他蛋白分子发生相同的错误折叠， | 
