[Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Report of a case with an unusually long course and immunohistochemical localization of the prion protein and overview of current information].

The human spongiform encephalopathies are a group of neurodegenerative disorders of unknown origin. They comprise a group of horizontally transmissible and genetically determined diseases. We present here a case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease with an unusually long clinical course, in which the prion protein was localized immunohistochemically. The generally accepted hypothesis on the pathogenesis of these diseases is the so-called 'prion-hypothesis'. The implications of this hypothesis are discussed and a short review of the literature is given.