News Finding: The team observed that previous infection with a gut worm reduced this accumulation, hindering the ability of the prions to then spread to the brain where they cause damage to nerve cells.
Paper Finding: The remaining mice in this group did not develop clinical prion disease up to at least 504 d after exposure.
News Context: The study showed that in animals that had previously been infected with a gut worm, the spread of the prions to the brain was reduced, delaying the onset of disease. The team observed that previous infection with a gut worm reduced this accumulation, hindering the ability of the prions to then spread to the brain where they cause damage to nerve cells. "We observed that the early accumulation of prions within Peyer's patches was reduced and survival times were significantly extended in individuals that had been infected by a gut worm."
Paper Context: As expected, four of eight of the mice exposed to prions alone developed clinical disease with a mean survival time of 394 ± 14 d (median = 401 d; Fig. The remaining mice in this group did not develop clinical prion disease up to at least 504 d after exposure. The mice co-infected with prions on d 0, 1 and 14 after H. polygyrus infection also succumbed to clinical prion disease with similar survival times and disease incidences to those infected with prions alone (Fig.