: Why do prion diseases have 100% fatality rate ?

Question

I recently found out about the so-called prion diseases, which are incurable and fatal diseases that affect (a euphemism, the real word is destroy) the CNS and cause a rapid deterioration of mental and physical abilities.

There are many prion diseases, the two most famous are probably the mad cow disease (non-human mammals), and the Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) (for human mammals). Both are 100% fatal, and *no one* is known to have survived longer than 2.5 years after a CJD diagnosis. That’s the kind of stuff you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.

Why are these diseases so deadly? I read that it has to do with abnormal proteins but that was way over my head.

EDIT : I have another question, can prion diseases be rightly called the most dangerous diseases known to man ?

Thanks;

In: Biology

Answer 1

Could these be a rather recent development evolutionarily? Could organisms just not have evolved a way to deal with prions yet?