Cystitis drug offers protection against CJD

08 January 1999

Cystitis drug offers protection against CJD

SCIENTISTS have discovered that a drug used to treat cystitis can also offer protection against new-variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (nvCJD).

Researchers at the Institute for Animal Health in Edinburgh called for further trials of the drug, pentosan polysulphate.

They tested it on mice seven hours after they had been infected with scrapie, according to a report in The Lancet.

More than 30 people have been diagnosed as having nvCJD since scientists said in 1996 that it could be contracted by eating beef infected with mad cow disease.

• The Herald 08/01/99 page 8