[Prospects of the therapeutic approaches to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: a clinical trial of antimalarial, quinacrine].

Prion diseases are lethal transmissible neurodegenerative illnesses that affect humans and many other animals. Since the accumulation of the pathogenic form of prion protein is a pivotal event in prion diseases, most of the therapeutic strategies are designed to prevent the conformational change of normal prion protein to that of the pathogenic form or to remove the accumulated prion protein. Quinacrine is one of the compounds that can inhibit the accumulation of pathogenic prion protein in cultured neuroblastoma cells. Here we report the results of clinical trials of quinacrine administration to the patients of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. In some patients, response to visual and auditory stimulations improved transiently. Lemon-yellow discolorization of skin and liver dysfunction were common side effects by quinacrine.