Topic: Prions...
... don't come up in the NR search, so here's some of the latest.
In response to an article that explains an experiment where Lab-made prions trigger mad cow symptoms, this fellow commented on /.:
This was done at UCSF, not UCSD. Read the article
There are still a few people the dis-believe the prion theory of disease put forward by Pruisner. For those who aren't familiar with the subject, prions are essentially misfolded proteins that can induce their mis-folding by interacting with copies of themselves. So, if protein A become randomly misfolded into A', it can bump into other copies of A and induce them to form A'. In many of the disease cases, these misfolded proteins can form plaques or tangles which then disrupt or rupture and kill cells.
While Pruisner's evidence for such a mechanism is more or less overwhelming there were still a couple people who didn't buy the story. The experiment talked about here (and I haven't seen the actual paper yet, but look forward to reading it) is rather difficult to do and is pretty much the last nail in the coffin of those disagreeing with prion theory. They do complain that the protein activities of the mutants were really low and that the mice used were not of the ideal strain buut this is missing the forest through the trees. As far as all of us whose opinions matter are concerned, the case is no more than closed and the pro-Pruisner side has won.
BTW, I've heard Pruisner say that a lot of neurological diseases are really prion based...but that case is far from being closed...so keep your ears open for such discussions in the future.
-Devon (who should disclose that he's a neuro grad student at UCSF, but works on neurogenetic diseases and not prions)
I've heard the Prion debate rage for years now. Is it any wonder that we're just now hearing about a means to artificially induce Prion-caused Mad Cow Deseise? It has been argued that the full extent of prion abuses might range the full gamut of degenerative diseases. Everything from MS to Parkensins (sp?). It could be theorized with little effort from that we've had the ability to create these malicious prions for decades and have been systematically 'dumbing-down' (read: thinning out) selections of the human population with such inoculations.