Volume 26, Number 6—June 2020
Etymologia
Etymologia: Scrapie
Figure

Figure. This photomicrograph of a neural tissue specimen, harvested from a scrapie affected mouse, revealed the presence of prion protein stained in red, which was in the process of being trafficked between neurons, by way of their interneuronal connections, known as neurites. Prion proteins can become infectious, causing neurodegenerative diseases such as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), which includes bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), more commonly referred to a mad cow disease. Scrapie is a TSE that is related to BSE, but affects sheep and goats. Iimage credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), 2011.