BLACKSBURG, Va., July 9 -- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University issued the following news release:
Ira Blader was looking for an enzyme inside samples of infected brain tissue. It should have been everywhere.
It seemingly vanished.
The enzyme produces gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA, the chemical that helps keep neurons from firing out of control and helps prevent seizures. In healthy tissue, it appears throughout the brain. In the infected samples, there was nothing.
"We couldn't see any of this enzyme, and that's crazy," Blader said. "So we wanted to know why we couldn't."
What researchers found reframed the question. The enzyme had not stopped being produced; it was being eliminated. The brain's own scavenger cells, ...