Eli5 what are prions and how do they misfold and cause diseases?
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A prion is a protein. All proteins rely on shape to do things, and the way they take this shape is by folding. The way it folds is determined by the structure as well as how it is made. And these proteins are what makes up everything in your body that does things. Most of the time this is fine, but if a protein gets folded incorrectly then bad things can happen. This is the misfold you are referring to. Most of the time it’s not an issue and it just doesn’t work. Sometimes though, this new fold is such a low energy fold that other proteins of the same type want to get in in the action and refold themselves to match it. That’s a prion. And like cancer it’s still you so your body doesn’t really have a way to identify and remove it. And because proteins make up you, eventually doing all this misfolding will cause significant issues and you go insane then die.
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