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UER Forum > UE Encyclopedia > Prion (Viewed 4026 times) Entry: Prion originally posted by Wilk A prion — short for proteinaceous infectious particle it is a poorly-understood hypothetical infectious agent - that according to the "protein only" hypothesis is composed only of proteins. Prions are thought to cause a number of diseases in a variety of mammals, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE aka "mad cow disease") in cattle and the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. All thus-far hypotheized prion diseases affect the structure of the brain or other neural tissue, and all are currently untreatable and thought to be fatal. In general usage, prion can refer to both the theoretical unit of infection or the specific protein that is thought to be the infective agent, whether or not it is in an infective state. Prions are hypothesized 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. All known prions induce the formation of an amyloid fold, in which the protein polymerises into an aggregate consisting of tightly packed beta sheets. This altered structure is extremely stable and accumulates in infected tissue, causing cell death and tissue damage. This stability means that prions are resistant to denaturation by chemical and physical agents, making disposal and containment of these particles difficult. Prions have been found in morgues and proteins showing prion-type behavior are also found in some fungi. Modify this entry  | Remove this entry UER Forum > UE Encyclopedia > Prion (Viewed 4026 times) Add a poll to this thread This thread is one of your Favourites. Click to make normal. Click to make this thread a Favourite. This thread is in a public category, and can't be made private. All content and images copyright © 2002-2024 UER.CA and respective creators. Graphical Design by Crossfire. To contact webmaster, or click to email with problems or other questions about this site: UER CONTACT View Terms of Service | View Privacy Policy | Server colocation provided by Beanfield This page was generated for you in 140 milliseconds. Since June 23, 2002, a total of 738901772 pages have been generated.