Neurochemical changes in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

A biochemical study of a case affected by Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is reported. Changes were found in soluble and insoluble proteins, glycoproteins and mucopolysaccharides and in total lipids, glycolipids, phospholipids and gangliosides. Also CNPase, choline acetyltransferase, 5'-nucleotidase and several glycosidases have an altered activity. All these data give a complete neurochemical pattern of the changes underlying the morphological and functional alterations in this disease.