Homozygosity for this variant was associated with a significant protective effect for Creutzfeldt-Jakob (p = 2.7e-4 in replication group). Heterozygous version (and not homozygous) of this variant was also found to be protective against kuru by, it is theorized, extending incubation time (2.2e-9). In general, this GWAS study “confirms the strong association of PRNP codon 129 (rs1799990) across acquired and sporadic prion diseases as the outstanding genetic risk factor in human prion disease”.