Huh, I’ll have to look into it, I might get to hit that 3 gallon mark after all (I was 2 donations away)
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Not being anywhere near Canada but a prion researcher, I wonder if anyone can give me more specific information about these cases. I have only read about them in the news and from what I have read I cannot figure out how they could be related to prion infection from deer (i.e. CWD). Surely, not all of these people have been consuming mystery meat from local deer hunting at the same time? What am I missing?
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@KingGhidorah We were the institute that made the strong case for transmissible Alzheimer and CAA (Evidence for human transmission of amyloid-β pathology and cerebral amyloid angiopathy | Nature). I want to point out that it is fairly easy to identify the replicating species in prion mechanisms. In Alzheimer it can be tau protein and amyloid-beta. In CJD, mad cow, CWD etc. it is the prion protein PrP. Same mechanism, but different protein. So, no - Alzheimer is definitely not caused by undetected mad cow transmissions.
@ejeffrey Alzheimer, Parkinson, Creutzfeldt-Jakob each have their own protein. Very similar replication mechanism, but so far only “proper” prions, i.e. made up from prion protein PrP have been shown to be infectious in animals and humans under real life conditions. Noone quite knows why.
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Can I just say how much I love this community? How many places can a discussion about prion diseases arise and be actually discussed meaningfully? And then to have an actual researcher in the field pop in. The nerd in me is dying a little bit. Thank you.
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Wow. this is the first time I’ve heard of the prion hypothesis for Parkinsons, even while with relatives (unrelated to one another) with severe Parkinsons.
This makes me very sad.
Prions are truly terrifying. Indestructible, contagious, and deadly. I kind of don’t understand how everyone isn’t already infected.
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Either we are, and the effects are too slow-moving to be statistically noticeable, or prions just aren’t that good at spreading themselves, or both. In any case, the empirical evidence is that they’re not actually very good at plaguing.
Which makes sense, when you think of the enormous amount of R&D that viruses have put into this, and prions come along and expect to become a plague with no armor, no capacity to evolve, and no mass replication strategy. It’s actually quite disrespectful.
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Well, they aren’t exactly indestructible. Just like any other protein, they can be dismantled destructively with radiation, chemicals, and/or heat. It is remarkable how extreme those conditions have to be to irreversibly damage prions, but it’s doable.
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Lol @ virus R&D.
It feels likely to me that we only see the tip of the iceberg, and that in reality many people are infected and even dying from prion disease. Maybe some are asymptomatic and no one will know they were infected unless an autopsy is performed.
I take comfort in the fact that some people in Papua New Guinea have evolved immunity to Kuru over time.
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