[Therapeutic approaches for treatment of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease]

A multiplicity of different chemical agents have shown positive effects in vivo in the treatment of prion diseases. However, some properties make implementation in clinical studies difficult, such as toxic effects or missing penetration of the blood-brain barrier. Thus, further studies are concentrating on the development of derivatives with less toxicity and good penetration of the blood-brain barrier. In part some clinical studies have shown positive effects, whereas other agents had no effect on survival time as the major aim of treatment. Difficulties in assessment of possible effects turn up especially in agents which were tested only in single patients. Promising preliminary results are indicated for the treatment with doxycycline.