Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!nanotech From: toms@fcs260c2.ncifcrf.gov (Tom Schneider) Newsgroups: sci.nanotech Subject: Re: Prions Message-ID: Date: 7 Jan 91 13:40:05 GMT Sender: nanotech@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: NCI Supercomputer Facility, Frederick, MD Lines: 32 Approved: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu In article mvp@hsv3.uucp (Mike Van Pelt) writes: >I was told recently that prions were just a hypothesis, which >turned out not to be true after all. I know I haven't seen >anything about them in years -- Anyone else have more info? They were a hypothesis TO EXPLAIN CERTAIN DISEASES. They were not a "just a hypothesis" floating in the air. The diseases are rather strange, that have long incubation periods (years) and cause brain degeneration. One was called Kuru (spelling?). Apparently it was transmitted when certain peoples ate the brains of dead relatives. The factor did not appear to contain any nucleic acid. The last report I saw confirmed this. There does seem to be a gene in the body that makes something similar to the prion protein, but I don't have the latest information on this. Perhaps if an abnormal form of the prion protein enters the body, it triggers the body to create more copies of that abnormal form. One could dream up many reasonable mechanisms. For example, the abnormal form could be created by a bad RNA splicing event that only occurs when the protein itself is in the cell. Although this does not explain the origin of the disease, it does explain the continuation. The disease could have originated as a mistaken RNA splicing event. >Mike Van Pelt >Headland Technology/Video 7 >...ames!vsi1!headland!mvp Tom Schneider National Cancer Institute Laboratory of Mathematical Biology Frederick, Maryland 21702-1201 toms@ncifcrf.gov