According to scientists, people in Papua New Guinea’s Fore tribe were able to keep dementia at bay by eating the brains of dead relatives.

The findings have been published in Nature by a team of British and Papua New Guinean scientists. It has been found by scientists that eventually, Fore tribe people developed strong resistance to kuru prion disease, which is a strange and deadly strain of dementia.

In conditions like kuru prion disease, the proliferation of deformed neural proteins occurs. These invaders form plaque-like polymers that gradually smother neural pathways and chew holes in the brain polymers after sticking together in infected brains.

As per scientists, prion-like plaques work in a similar way in the development of other neural diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Researchers say it is possible that similar genetic mutations could protect against different types of dementias.

The gene mutation that offers immunity to kuru survivors is called V127. The mutation in mice was replicated by researchers at University College London and they found that it also helped protect them against kuru and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is the human version of mad cow disease.

According to lead researcher Dr. Emmanuel Asante, “From the human genetic work the Unit has carried out in Papua New Guinea we were expecting the mice to show some resistance to disease. However, we were surprised that the mice were completely protected from all human prion strains”.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) is considered to be more widespread prion-based disorder. It is expected that the discovery will help scientists know more about the molecular causes of the condition and find possible treatments of other diseases based on prion.