Live data from Hacker News

France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes

sciencemag.org

171–180 of 305 posts

Re: France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes

#171

Hm: "long period of uncertainty began on 31 May 2010, when she stabbed her left thumb with a curved forceps while cleaning a cryostat—a machine that can cut tissues at very low temperatures—that she used to slice brain sections from transgenic mice infected with a sheep-adapted form of BSE . She pierced two layers of latex gloves and drew blood" Later in the article: ""We conduct research only on mouse-adapted sheep…

The full section with the Aguzzi quote adds context, including his declining to comment on the French case.

> The scientific community has long recognized that handling prions is dangerous and an occupational risk for neuropathologists, says neuropathologist Adriano Aguzzi of the University of Zurich. Aguzzi declined to comment on the French CJD cases, but told Science his lab never handles human or bovine prions for research purposes, only for diagnostics. “We conduct research only on mouse-adapted sheep prions, which have never been shown to be infectious to humans,” Aguzzi says. In a 2011 paper, his team reported that prions can spread through aerosols, at least in mice, which “may warrant re-thinking on prion biosafety guidelines in research and diagnostic laboratories,” they wrote. Aguzzi says he was “totally shocked” by the finding and introduced safety measures to prevent aerosol spread at his own lab, but the paper drew little attention elsewhere.

Re: France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are conflating lab leak with intentionally crafted bioweapon.

A bioweapon that can't be targeted doesn't seem very useful, does it?

Could easily be both. Bioweapon development that was accidentally leaked.

Re: France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes

#174

> Jaumain’s family has filed both criminal charges and an administrative suit against INRAE, alleging a range of problems at Jaumain’s lab. She had not been trained in handling dangerous prions or responding to accidents and did not wear both metal mesh and surgical gloves, as she was supposed to, says Julien Bensimhon, the family’s lawyer. The thumb should have been soaked in a bleach solution immediately, which did…

Risk management can (and often does) include simply accepting risks and their consequences.

A strong risk management doesn't necessarily mean strong protection of employees, just that lots of risks have been considered, documented and weighed in some form.

Re: France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes

#175
post #56

Prions are weird. I was at UCSF during the time they went from a fringe theory to an established fact and a nobel prize. The professor who studied them (Prusiner) had to overcome tons of resistance and the experiments were heroic (often waiting months for mice to die). It's really funny that everybody resisted it until somebody mentioned that there was a plausible physical mechanism of refolding catalysis.

Is it because many researchers put their ego first over the science? It's so many times that they ridicule ideas, that often amounts to bullying and then they rarely even say sorry when it turns out they were wrong. Why won't academia flush out these types of people? The toxic atmosphere with no way of getting rid of bad apples is what put me off from studying.

Re: France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes

#176

Hm: "long period of uncertainty began on 31 May 2010, when she stabbed her left thumb with a curved forceps while cleaning a cryostat—a machine that can cut tissues at very low temperatures—that she used to slice brain sections from transgenic mice infected with a sheep-adapted form of BSE . She pierced two layers of latex gloves and drew blood" Later in the article: ""We conduct research only on mouse-adapted sheep…

“Never been shown to” is the kind of false speak I keep hearing from the government and media. Just because you’ve never tried it doesn’t mean you have shown something.

"There is no evidence that..." is my recent favorite.

Re: France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes

#177
post #14
post #6

> She had not been trained in handling dangerous prions or responding to accidents and did not wear both metal mesh and surgical gloves, as she was supposed to, says Julien Bensimhon, the family’s lawyer. The thumb should have been soaked in a bleach solution immediately, which did not happen, Bensimhon adds. Does bleach even affect proteins? Isn't that protocol for an organism you're afraid of?

>A 5-minute soak in a 40% solution of household bleach decontaminated stainless steel wires coated with chronic wasting disease (CWD) prions, according to a new study by National Institutes of Health scientists. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/household-blea...

Holy shit, 5 minutes soaked? That's intense

Re: France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes

#178
post #77
post #48

Could a cure be to stop proteosynthesis of the prion-protein? https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/prions-ar... "This protein, in its healthy, properly-folded state, is, if not trivial, relatively unimportant. Its complete loss is certainly not catastrophic." I have no idea how to block proteosynthesis of a single protein in humans, maybe more biologically attuned HN:ners can comment what it would mean…

It seems to me that in an adult, it may already be too late. How would you remove the existing protein?

Maybe it would degrade after some time, or be cleaned up by the body. At worst it should stop the disease progression.

Re: France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes

#179
post #82

This reminds me of those early 1900s nuclear researchers who got exposed to radiation poisoning which eventually took a long term toll. The multi-year gap makes this one especially difficult to track down to specific events/exposures.

The 'Radium Girls' cases! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls

"It is safe"...

Re: France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes

#180
post #52
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"infect" is not the right word. Prions are not viruses, they do not replicate, they ravage other proteins in their surroundings by misfolding them over and over again until it becomes a fatal pathology.

Infect is exactly the right word. Infectious disease is also called transmissible diseases. Infectious microorganism or agent can be a virus, bacterium, protozoan, prion, viroid, or fungus.

Don't forget memes. Not the current pop-culture meaning of the term, but the original Dawkins version, which stretches to cover things like mass-hysteria.
Post reply on HN