Kuru (disease)
Kuru is a disease caused by cannibalism, formerly thought to be caused by specifically eating human brains, but is actually caused by eating any human meat. It is also known as the "laughing sickness" due to the pathologic bursts of laughter that the patient displays.
| Kuru | |
|---|---|
| Classification and external resources | |
| ICD-10 | A81.8 |
| ICD-9 | 046.0 |
| DiseasesDB | 31861 |
| MedlinePlus | 001379 |
| eMedicine | med/1248 |
| MeSH | D007729 |
Kuru was found in Papua New Guinea, among members of the Fore tribe.[1] The word kuru means "trembling with fear" in the Fore language.
Kuru (disease) Media
Normally folded prion protein PrPc subdomain-Residues 125–228. Note the presence of alpha helices (blue).
Cryoelectron microscopy model of the misfolded PrPsc protein, enriched in beta sheets (center)
Cerebellum of a kuru patient
References
- ↑ Lindenbaum S (November 2008). "Review. Understanding kuru: the contribution of anthropology and medicine". Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. 363 (1510): 3715–20. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0072. PMC 2735506. PMID 18849287.