الكلمات المفتاحية
الملخص
Prions are unconventional infectious agents that cause lethal transmissible neurodegenerative diseases in humans and animals. They were the main cause of a number of diseases including Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker Syndrome, Fatal Familial Insomnia and Kuru. Prions can be distinguished from other pathogens by their lack of nucleic acids. The most important process for prion propagation is the conversion from normal cellular prion protein on the cell membrane to insoluble, limited protease digestion-resistant, pathogenic scrapie prion protein. For several years, many pharmacological and biological tools have been targeting different stages of disease progression. A very few numbers of them have been upgraded to clinical trials. Despite all these treatments being tested, none has been approved as a therapeutic drug for prion diseases in general. In this review, some of these treatments will be discussed to get a basic knowledge of different possible therapies.