answersLogoWhite

0

Prions

A prion is an infectious agent consisting of a protein that is mis-folded. It can cause several central nervous system diseases. Included are Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, Fatal Familial Insomnia and Kuru in humans plus Scrapie in sheep.

500 Questions

How could prions multiply without nucleic acids?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

Prions multiply by a process which is, at present, not fully understood. The protein PrPr is present in healthy cells of all mammals, in the brain and central nervous system. It is only when the gene that creates PrPr undergoes mutation that it begins to produce a harmful strain of PrPr, the prion. Prions replicate by causing the surrounding healthy proteins to fold abronmally, turning them into prions. These newly-formed prions in turn cause other proteins to fold abnormally. This process creates vacuoles in the cells of the brain, resulting in diseases such as Creutzfeld-Jakob disease in humans, and Bovine Spongiform Enphysema in cows. Prions multiply by a process which is, at present, not fully understood. The protein PrPr is present in healthy cells of all mammals, in the brain and central nervous system. It is only when the gene that creates PrPr undergoes mutation that it begins to produce a harmful strain of PrPr, the prion. Prions replicate by causing the surrounding healthy proteins to fold abronmally, turning them into prions. These newly-formed prions in turn cause other proteins to fold abnormally. This process creates vacuoles in the cells of the brain, resulting in diseases such as Creutzfeld-Jakob disease in humans, and Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease)

How do virus prion and viroid evolve?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

Prions are misfolded proteins and may form because of some misreading of the DNA code. Virions are extracellular state of a virus with nucleocapsid.

How are viruses and prions different?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

Prions are infectious agents composed exclusively of a single sialoglycoprotein called PrP 27-30. They contain no nucleic acid. PrP 27-30 has a mass of 27,000 - 30,000 daltons and is composed of 145 amino acids with glycosylation at or near amino acids 181 and 197. The carboxy terminus contains a phosphatidylinositol glycolipid whose components are ethanolamine, phosphate, myo-inositol and stearic acid. This protein polymerizes into rods possessing the ultrastructural and histochemical characteristics of amyloid. Amyloid is a generic term referring to any optically homogenous, waxy, translucent glycoprotein; it is deposited intercellularly and/or intracellularly in many human diseases such as:

  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
  • Down's syndrome
  • Fatal familial insomnia
  • Gerstmann-Straussler syndrome
  • Kuru Leprosy

Viroids are infectious agents composed exclusively of a single piece of circular single stranded RNA which has some double-stranded regions.

  • Because of their simplified structures both prions and viroids are sometimes called subviral particles. Viroids mainly cause plant diseases but have recently been reported to cause a human disease.

    Catalytic RNAs are those that have the intrinsic ability to break and form covalent bonds; Viroids are catalytic RNA's (ribozymes) that cleave RNA to produce fragments containing a 5'-hydroxyl and a 2', 3'-cyclic phosphate.

Can a Gram stain a prion?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

Protists are often stained using a silver stain, not a Gram stain.

Why dont blood cells and antibodies from the immune system try to destroy the toxic prion proteins?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

prions are refolded versions of normal proteins, so the B and T cells see them as "normal" and thus ignore them.

Is a virus a prion?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

No, although there is a hypothesis that prion diseases are associated with an undetected viral pathogen.

Can you kill prions by sterilization?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

No, cooking does not destroy or disable prions. If you were able to cook a meat that contains prions to the point where the prions were disabled, the meat would be rendered inedible.


You can use chemicals mixed with heat to destroy prions, but that's not a process you would want to subject your food to.

Why aren't prions alive?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

This could be a real gray area depending on the definition of life.

I would have to say yes as they meet the following criteria.

  • they reproduce.
  • they employ enzymes (themselves)
  • they utilized energy to perpetuate their function
  • they utilized resources to perpetuate their function.

Are any animals immune to prion diseases?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

What was once an oddity is now being understood as a nerve disease caused by a commonly found misfolded protein made by a gene in DNA, This is a common gene is seen in yeast to mammals. So to get to your question, I don't think that there will be any animal immune to prions.

Prion diseases are caused by misfolded forms of the prion protein, also known as PrP. These diseases affect a lot of different mammals in addition to humans and even yeast. There is Scrapie in sheep, mad cow disease in cows, and chronic wasting disease in deer. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

(CJD), fatal familial insomnia (FFI), Gertsmann-Straussler-Scheinker syndrome (GSS),

Kuru and variably protease-sensitive prionopathy (VPSPr) are found in humans. There was a famous epidemic of Kuru, a prion disease which was passed from person to person by cannibalism (eating the brains of the dead). Fatal familial insomnia are also prions found in humans.

Over the past several years, it's increasingly common to hear people use the term "prion" to refer to amyloid beta (the protein involved in Alzheimer's), alpha synuclein (the culprit in Parkinson's Disease).

In each disease, the prion protein (PrP) folds up the wrong way, becoming a prion, and then causes other PrP molecules to do the same. Prions can then spread "silently" across the brain for years without causing any symptoms. Then it starts to kill neurons.

Everyone has a gene called PRNP which codes for the protein called PrP, and most of the time this protein is perfectly healthy and fine. Some people have mutations in the DNA of their PRNP gene, which cause it to produce mutant forms of PrP. These mutant forms don't form prions instantly, and most people with PRNP mutations live perfectly healthy for decades. But as people get older, the

mutant forms of PrP are more and more likely to fold up the wrong way and form prions.

Once they do, the person has a rapid neurodegenerative disease.

How do prions reproduce?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

They don't quite 'reproduce', propagate would be closer to the mark. Prions are 'rogue' proteins, versions of naturally occurring proteins with a different 3D structure.

They replicate in living host .

What is the treatment for prion disease?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

There is no known effective treatment to arrest or cure prion diseases. Treatment focuses on alleviating the patient's symptoms, increasing their comfort, and palliative care.

What is another name for prion disease?

User Avatar

Asked by GaleEncyofNeuroDis

A prion is a misfolded protein that is considered an infectious agent because they cause properly folded proteins to convert into the misfolded, prion form. In humans, prions cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. In cattle, prions cause mad-cow disease.

How are prions spread?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

What are the sizes of prions virons and bacteria?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

its the size of your brain which is very small

Why can not antibotics can not be use to treat viruse or prions?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

Most drugs which target bacteria work by targeting specific enzymes which they inhibit and thus prevent vital protein formation by the bacteria. Viruses do no have these enzymes so they are unaffected.

Source - BSc(Hons)

Why are prions unlike any other infectious disease?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

They contain only protein and no nucleic acids

How can you destroy prions?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

in order to answer this question, you must first determine where the PRION is coming from. What causes the (any infected body) protein to begin the mal folding process? Or is the prion simply ingested from diseased tissue? (beef, sheep, goat..... and which tissue? And why were cannibals suseptible? What cannibal source initiated the disease? (brain tissue, or affected motor related, ie nerve related matter?) If incubation is two to twenty three years....?? what implications does that factor suggest?

where or what is the source of the deadly protein...that is the question.

What are prions and how do they cause diseases?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

Prions are protein matrices that self replicate. they are not alive and are not easily denatured using heat. Example = "mad cow disease"

These matrices can become quite large and cause inflammation and then necrotic areas in the body.

How does a person get Prions?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

Is malaria a bacteria a virus a protist a fungi or a prion?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

AIDS is a virus that attacks and replicates inside of a host. It basically destroys your immune system leaving you open to attacks from bacteria, other viruses, cancers, and possibly fungi and mold. Part of the reason AIDS is so dangerous is that it in and of itself doesn't kill you, it just leads to other things being able to attack you with impunity. Another answer:

No.

HIV Aids is an auto immune disease caused by a virus invading cells in the body and making the victim unable to combat everyday diseases that the immune system would normally fight without the person even being aware of it's presence.

Are prions eukaryotic?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

Depends on your definition of life. Prions are self replicating (though only in the right conditions. ie inside a host), which is the basic requirement for a living organism. In theory life could have arisen through a similar self replicating molecule.

What are viroids and prions?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

I have no idea so go ask someone else. The similarities between viroids and prions are that both are acellular pathogens, and do not grow and they differ in the sense that prions do not have nucleic acids while viroids have the nucleic acid,RNA.

Do prions contain DNA or RNA?

User Avatar

Asked by Wiki User

Prions are an infectious particle made of protein. They do not contain DNA or RNA.