What is a prion?
What is a proin and what are the characteristics of prion diseases?...
What is a proin and what are the characteristics of prion diseases?
 dels replies |
Something to do with mad cow disease,It's the cell or similar that contains the disease in the animal and if eaten can pass the disease on to humans. |
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 MCFC  |
A prion (IPA: [ˈpriːɒn].[1][2]listen (help·info)) — short for proteinaceous infectious particle that lacks nucleic acid (by analogy to virion) — is a type of infectious agent made only of protein. Prions are believed to infect and propagate by refolding abnormally into a structure which is able to convert normal molecules of the protein into the abnormally structured form. However, the term in itself does not preclude other mechanisms of transmission |
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joe b |
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-prion.htm |
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 Shashee  |
prion noun (microbiology) an infectious protein particle similar to a virus but lacking nucleic acid; thought to be the agent responsible for scrapie and other degenerative diseases of the nervous system Mad Cow Disease Researchers believe that the infectious agent that causes mad cow disease is an abnormal version of a protein normally found on cell surfaces, called a prion. For reasons still unknown, this protein becomes altered and destroys nervous system tissue - the brain and spinal cord. Does cooking food kill the prion that causes mad cow disease? Common methods to eliminate disease-causing organisms in food, like heat, do not affect prions. Also, prions only seem to live in nervous system tissue. |
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gangadharan_nair |
Please see Google search for more details on Prion. |
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 bkoo869  |
Basically, a prion is a twisted protein that can reproduce. It can somehow twist other proteins into its particular shape. Then, the protein doesn't do what it was originally supposed to do, and it can actually cause damage. They don't reproduce as fast as viruses, and they're technically not alive, but they also never go away. They slowly cause damage, silently, often for years, before being detected - and there's no treatment or cure. But don't be too alarmed - the only way to get the ones that cause "mad cow" disease, practically, is to eat the brain or nervous system of someone or something infected with them. Muscle (regular meat) has virtually no prions. I didn't answer the disease part. Just look up "mad cow disease" in Google. |
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Sean JTR |
Try Wikipedia: - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion Answers you question |
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