Eli5: As I understand, a prion is a misfolded protein. How does misfolding apparently give it the ability to break everything?
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Folding is, like, one of *the* main things about proteins. All proteins are made of the same few building blocks – putting them in a different order causes the protein to “fold” into a different shape, and the shape is what makes them different. If it folds differently, then it’s a different protein. (Shape isn’t the *only* factor – it does also matter which building blocks are at different spots in the shape)
Proteins fold wrongly all the time, but it’s very unusual that a wrongly folded protein causes other proteins to fold wrongly *and* can’t be unfolded or recycled automatically.
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