PRION

Prion

A prion in the Scrapie form is an infectious agent composed of protein in a misfolded form. This is the central idea of the Prion Hypothesis, which remains debated. This would be in contrast to all other known infectious agents which must contain nucleic acids . The word prion, coined in 1982 by Stanley B. Prusiner, is derived from the words protein and infection. Prions are responsible for the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in a variety of mammals, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle. In humans, prions cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, Gerstmann–Sträussler–Scheinker syndrome, ...

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prion

Noun

  1. A self-propagating misfolded conformer of a protein that is responsible for a number of diseases that affect the brain and other neural tissue.

Noun (etymology 2)

  1. A petrel of the genus Pachyptila.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: prion
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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