Eli5: Been hearing a lot about Prions recently, what is it that makes them so terrifying?

Question

I’ve not heard about them much until recently, where i keep seeing mention of them, what exactly are they?

In: Biology

Answer 1

They are nothing more than a protein that is folded on itself in a way that causes other proteins to mess up too. They are not alive and require extreme temperatures to destroy. Luckily, relatively rare to infect humans.