[Infectiology] Prion

Taxonomy 

• Prion

Prions are almost universally considered to be non-living.
They are infectious agents, which consist of protein.
They cannot replicate themselves, because they have contain no nucleic acids.

Pathology  

A prion is a misfolded protein, which binds to healthy protein and disrupts the arrangement of that protein, converting it into a second prion. .

They can interact with specific functional proteins to change their protein folding into a pathological arrangement. This produces new prions. This continues as a chain reaction until all normal protein has been converted into prions. This causes rapid destruction of accessible tissues.

Some prion diseases are genetically inherited. A spontaneous mutation in a gene can produce a gene which encodes a prion protein, and this gene can be passed to offspring.

Fortunately the only known way to become infected by a prion is the ingestion of infected tissues. 

 

Prion diseases