I remember hearing that prions like mad cow disease are misfolded proteins that manipulate other proteins they come into contact with. If that’s the case why can’t you use another prion to unfold it and restore it to normal?
In: Biology
this isn’t exactly ELI5, but basically when the prion causes a misfold, it makes the protein go into a low energy confirmation. Thnk about spilling a glass of milk: before the milk is spilled, it’s organized in the glass. When it’s spilled, it’s chaotic and all over. It would take a lot of energy to get it all back into the glass just the way it was. It’s more stable out of the glass than when glass was there. It’s the same with the protein, since it’s more stable misfolded it would take a pretty powerful enzyme to correct it, and how do we even know what’s ‘correct’?
If my answer is weird or wrong someone please let me know, that’s how I understood it from biochem but it’s been a hot minute.
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