A role for B lymphocytes in anti-infective prion therapies?

The deposition of proteins in the form of amyloid fibrils and plaques is the characteristic feature of a number of neurodegenerative conditions affecting the nervous system. These disorders include prion and Alzheimer's diseases and are of enormous importance for public health. It has become apparent over the last 20 years that specificity and application in prion diseases' diagnostic and therapeutic situations are the most important considerations in designing strategies for the generation of antiprion antibodies. Specific antiprion therapeutics have been suggested and the establishment of the 'proof-of-principle' that the use of epitope-specific antiprion antibodies leads to indefinite delay of disease onset, has increased momentum for its use, although caution should be exerted prior to the application of new therapeutic strategies in a clinical set up. Furthermore, in vivo stimulation of immune-competent cells to specifically recognize and neutralize the abnormally folded isoform should also be pursued.