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
We know of many protein folding chaperones that can do this intracellularly. Another hurtle to overcome is early diagnosis. vCJD “human mad cow” may have these misfolded, contagious proteins build up over months, years, or even decades. By the time signs and symptoms are diagnosed (through brain biopsy), brain tissue death is usually high and prognosis is poor. There is a genetic disorder Creutzfeldt Jacobs Disease that this disorder is inherited through a mutation in the neural protein. Further research here could give us some additional answers.
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