McLaughlin Research Institute in Great Falls lands $1 million grant to study brain diseases including CWD and mad cow.

Facility will use funds to research agents that cause brain diseases in humans and animals

Rare but deadly prion diseases have netted McLaughlin Research Institute’s senior scientist, Dr. George A. Carlson, half of a $2.2 million grant from the Defense Department.

By RICHARD ECKE
Tribune Staff Writer

The Great Falls facility will receive about $1.1 million from the grant over three years, enabling it to add a post-doctoral scientist and a research assistant.

Prions are infectious agents that cause brain diseases in humans and animals, including mad cow disease.

"The real terrifying thing about prion diseases is there’s such a long period when you’re perfectly healthy," Carlson said. An infected person can live 20 or 30 years before the brain is devastated and the person dies.

Researchers hope to outsmart stealthy prions by producing a test to detect the infection.

"Our studies with mice could form the basis for a blood-based diagnostic test for prion-infected humans and livestock," Carlson said.

That is a chief goal of the grant given Carlson and Dr. Leroy Hood, who directs the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. Hood is a member of McLaughlin’s Scientific Advisory Committee and is a native of Shelby.

McLaughlin, with its expertise in mice research, will split the grant with Hood’s group, which has more high-tech equipment, Carlson said.

The grant by the U.S. Army was given at the behest of Congress, with special interest shown by members of Congress from cattle country, Carlson said.

A mad cow outbreak in the United States, or the transfer of another prion disease from wild animals to cattle, "could devastate the cattle industry," Carlson pointed out.

Beth Emter, communications coordinator for the Montana Stockgrowers Association in Helena, said the cattle industry welcomes more research into such diseases.

"Knowledge is power," she said. Emter added that research backs the notion that the country’s beef supply is safe.

She said precautions have already been taken to prevent mad cow disease in the United States, including a ban on the type of cattle feed that caused trouble in Europe. Mad cow disease in Britain is believed to have spread through feed contaminated by chopped-up parts of infected animals mixed into the feed.

In Great Falls, McLaughlin already receives about $600,000 per year from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to study the workings of prions. That grant is renewable; the one announced Wednesday is one-time only.

Among the prion diseases are:

l Chronic wasting disease, which kills deer and elk, but has not been confirmed in the wild in Montana, although it appeared in elk from a game farm in Phillipsburg in 1998 and 1999. Some 83 of the elk at the game farm were destroyed in 1999, and nine of those elk tested positive for chronic wasting disease, according to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks. It is not known if wasting disease can be passed to cows or hunters, according to Carlson. Emter said cattle industry officials "feel confident" the disease cannot be passed to cattle.

l Mad cow disease, which killed more than 100 Britons after they ate tainted beef in the late 1980s and 1990s. Contaminated cattle feed in Great Britain infected cows and then spread to people, who ate beef or beef byproducts. Some five million head of cattle in Britain were slaughtered, and the spread of the disease has been largely contained. More deaths among people are expected there because of the long time span between infection and symptoms.

l Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, a separate malady that afflicts and kills about one in a million Americans. Carlson said this brain disease can be caused by a spontaneous mutation or be passed down in families, but it is not believed to have come from animals. A variant of this disease, passed through cattle, was what killed people in Great Britain.

The new grant comes from the National Prion Research Program, underwritten by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command, to study diseases known formally as spongiform encepalopathies. Researchers in Great Falls and Seattle hope to help develop tests for prion diseases, as well as find ways to prevent and manage them.

Emter said a test to reveal the diseases "absolutely" would be helpful.

Today, she said, "the animal has to be dead before they can do the testing of the brain tissue."

In addition to congressional interest, military officials considered the project worthy because of a potential threat to food and blood supplies, Carlson said. A number of military personnel are stationed in Europe, where mad cow disease emerged.

Carlson said researchers will look at infected mice to see how their bodies respond to prion infections, then compare them to healthy mice. If clear patterns emerge, a test for prion diseases may emerge as well.

Researchers also will be helped by completion of mapping of the human genome, the body’s genetic blueprint, announced April 14. As a result, biologists will be able to examine activities by virtually all genes and proteins found in humans, according to the McLaughlin Research Institute.

Experts believe genetic mapping will help researchers find treatments and cures for a host of diseases. And they hope research into prion diseases will rank among future success stories.

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