Xref: utzoo sci.bio:2474 sci.med:13354
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!cica!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!mmm
From: mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.med
Subject: What ever happened to PRIONS ???  (scrapie, C-J, BSE)
Message-ID: <23936@cup.portal.com>
Date: 11 Nov 89 19:41:41 GMT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 9

A couple years ago, a researcher at UCSF claimed that certain diseases,
including scrapie and Creuzfeldt-Jakob syndrome, were caused by an
infective agent he called "prions".  Prions are said to be like viruses,
but are composed of protein only, no RNA or DNA.

If true, this seems to me to be one of the most important discoveries
of the decade.  Yet, I've heard almost nothing on this topic since
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN published an article.  What is the current status
of prions?  Has the theory been discredited or what?