Do "prions" exist? The word "prion" is used in different ways. It is used to describe the TSE group of diseases but it is also associated with the "protein-only" hypothesis discussed below.

Prions are best described as misfolded proteins with an ability to transmit their misfolded shape onto normal variants of the same protein. Let's dive into the many fatal neurodegenerative ...

May 17, 2024 — A new study of prion diseases, using a human cerebral organoid model, suggests there is a substantial species barrier preventing transmission of chronic wasting disease (CWD) from ...

Luckily for us, ice-nine is fictitious. But its biological counterpart, unfortunately, is not. The misfolded proteins known as prions are very real. Prions are proteinaceous infectious particles, ...

For example, prions originating from sheep appear to be, as far as we know, innocuous for humans, whereas BSE prions are highly promiscuous and can cause disease in many different hosts ...

While deer and other animals such as elk and moose that contract CWD always die and there is no vaccine or treatment, the ...

Interestingly, the extended PMCA yielded novel forms of misfolded prions that caused new disease phenotypes. When injected into wild-type hamsters, the PMCA-generated hampster PrP Sc caused ...

The rapid progression of chronic wasting disease in wild deer and elk in the Northern Rockies means it’s here to stay. There is one instance of the fatal disease being eradicated in the wild, in 2005 ...

“CWD-infected deer shed prions through saliva, urine and feces, and infected carcasses contribute to environmental contamination. Once in soil, CWD prions remain infectious for decades ...