If a Prion can misfold other proteins, why can’t you make an enzyme or another prion that undoes the fold?

Question

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

Answer 1

Think of a pipe cleaner that is twisted and folded. It’s trivial to go and pull it straight, but try and recreate EXACTLY how it was twisted and folded before, and you’re going to have some difficulties. Proteins have thousands of types of folds, so building all the folds in a protein from scratch would require more than a simple enzyme.