Therapeutic approaches in treating Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease - what does the future hold?

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is one of the human prion disorders. It has a rapid disease course and is invariably fatal. Currently, no therapy is available. The causative agent is thought to be the prion protein, which acquires a pathological isoform through a conformational change and is hardly degradable. Experimental research has identified several substances, which were able to modestly inhibit the formation and propagation of pathological prion configurations. However, these substances were only effective when administered around the time of inoculation with the pathological prion. This review discusses the possibilities and limitations encountered in the development of pharmacotherapeutics for CJD.