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Prions, Nearly Indestructible and Universally Lethal, Seed the Eyes of Victims

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Re: Prions, Nearly Indestructible and Universally Lethal, Seed the Eyes of Victims

#131

Post by ergothus »

PeterisP wrote: post #122
ergothus wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain why? I'm not saying this is wrong, but they definitely replicate (by encountering and warping other proteins), so are you (and grandparent) saying that the replication rate is too slow? If so, why? Are you saying we have no means of transmitting proteins? (that sounds wrong, though I've been wrong before) From my (ignorant, despite being interested in prions for decades now) perspective, you have some…

A prion can't arbitrary replicate from "food" or "host", its replication is more like a damaged version of protein X that can damage that same protein X if it encounters it. In many aspects it stays the same protein - the exact same DNA, the exact same sequence, just folded differently. A virus can overtake a cell and mobilize its resources to create a bajillion copies of that virus. A prion can transform only as muc…

A bacteria replicates at a much smaller rate than a virus.

A virus requires a cell to replicate, bacteria require a much more limited range of hospitable environments.

Both bacteria and viruses "attempt" to create exact copies, just as a prion does. Admittedly prion replication probably has more accuracy, but that prions occur at all indicates the process allows for natural selection.

These don't seem to put prions outside of the "replication" category - they replicate by encountering other proteins, so they are in a body. Their rate of replication is limited (or boosted) by the rate of encountering these proteins. They attempt to create copies of themselves with the chance of failure or different end result.

Re: Prions, Nearly Indestructible and Universally Lethal, Seed the Eyes of Victims

#132

Post by snowwrestler »

ff7f00 wrote: post #127
nkurz wrote: post #125

In related prion news, does anyone have insight into the recent studies suggesting that Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD, increasingly prevalent in North American deer and elk) may be transmissible from infected animals to humans via cooked muscle meat? In 2017, there was a Canadian study that seemed to show that feeding macaque monkeys raw muscle meat from infected deer was capable of transmitting the disease. I don't t…

I don't have studies but I did email the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center asking "is there a breakdown of cases of the individual Animal Prion Diseases by location and possibly by year (i.e. cases of human prion disease acquired by eating contaminated meat)?" and here was their response: > To date, in the US, there have been no known cases of variant CJD, or human prion disease acquired by eating…

This is such a great comment. Thank you for doing that legwork, and for sharing it.

Re: Prions, Nearly Indestructible and Universally Lethal, Seed the Eyes of Victims

#133

Post by Fomite »

adamb wrote: post #114
sillypuddy wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is alzheimers a prion disease, or maybe just Prions are involved?

My understanding is that there is some evidence that Alzheimer's is transmissible (e.g. higher rate of incidence in caregivers and neurosurgeons), but more study is needed.

There's also been observations of particularly large amounts of certain human herpes viruses in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.

Re: Prions, Nearly Indestructible and Universally Lethal, Seed the Eyes of Victims

#134

Post by ryanmercer »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #105
ryanmercer wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If life is a simulation, prions suggest either the simulation is run at an extremely high degree of verisimilitude, indeed simulating QM at a particle level for living things, or that the simulator has an incredible desire for accuracy, These are both somewhat my logic for even believing we live in a simulation. Obviously humans seem to be the largest factor on Earth given how we are rapidly changing the planet and…

Are you saying that the more complicated things are, the more it hints at a simulation? Here, let me ask the most important question: What evidence about how things work on earth would make you less likely to believe the world is a simulation? Because it's always possible to come up with a justification after seeing evidence. (Other planets are a different issue entirely.)

>Are you saying that the more complicated things are, the more it hints at a simulation?

No, I'm saying that the fact that we can see down to a subatomic level which adds considerable complexity to a hypothetical simulation is not evidence that it is impossible that we live in a simulation.

If you tried to describe a 2018 smartphone to Konrad Zuse in 1936 he'd have thought you were either quite mad or a science fiction author. To him it would almost certainly be unfathomable as reality, even with him knowing that he created the first programmable computer. Hell, if you actually showed an iPhone to most of us in the 70's, 80's, or early 90's we'd likely have had a rough time processing it at first, especially if you loaded a VR game or some 4k video.

Re: Prions, Nearly Indestructible and Universally Lethal, Seed the Eyes of Victims

#135

Post by tossandturn »

zaarn wrote: post #86
arkades wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We take measures now, for tissues where prions are a possible transmission risk. The article mis-represented that. But: (1) there are only so many resources to go around. Should we be devoting them to vanishingly rare things rather than things that might actually affect you? (2) prions will never be a wildfire plague. They have little or no tranmissive ability, by nature of being absolutely naked protein. One step up…

Nitpick but the step between virus and prion is a viroid; a naked piece of RNA. They mostly exist in plants to my knowledge and are basically the smallest possible infectious disease. The smallest viroids clock in at around 120 base pairs (240 nucleotides).

Prions are like gamma-induced bit flips, Viroids are like small code patches, and Viruses are self-deploying code patches.

Re: Prions, Nearly Indestructible and Universally Lethal, Seed the Eyes of Victims

#136

Post by Chris_Chambers »

ergothus wrote: post #112
OldFatCactus wrote: post #24

I had project in college on Prions. Some interesting things I remember: * Kuru (laughing disease) was transmitted from cannibalism. Women and children of the tribe were more likely to contract it because they were more often given the less palatable parts of the bodies, which included brains * Some countries do not trust American cattle because our standards for Prion screening are too low * Kentucky has issues with…

A few questions: * Do we have a good grasp on the number of prions in the world? My recollection from when MadCow became a big thing in the late 90s was that prions weren't even looked for and were hard to find as a general rule, but that was 20+ years ago. Might there be many common-but-harmless prions that we haven't even noticed? * WHY is brain consumption (both in humans and in animals) such a source of prions? W…

Across all species, the brain has universally been sandboxed from the rest of the body for millions of years. It has had plenty of time to evolve traits that are only beneficial in an all-neuron environment, with minimal regard for how those traits would damage other types of cells. Maybe prion behavior that seems destructive outside of the brain is actually a normal part of the long term memory formation process.

Re: Prions, Nearly Indestructible and Universally Lethal, Seed the Eyes of Victims

#137

Post by 0db532a0 »

nkurz wrote: post #121
0db532a0 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oxford, Cambridge and Merriam-Webster say no.

Why do you say this? And why phrase it so tersely? Merriam-Webster at least (the only one I've checked) says that "deep-seated" is the only correct version: Definition of deep-seated 1 : situated far below the surface 2 : firmly established https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deep-seated “deep-seeded” The word you've entered isn't in the dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deep-seeded

I was trying to make it clear that whiddershins was wrong to say that ‘deep seated’ is the correct usage in contrast to ‘deep-seated’ when Oxford, Cambridge and Merriam-Webster say that ‘deep-seated’ is indeed a correct usage.

P.S. Inconsistency: I assumed that whiddershins was complaining about the hyphen, rather than correcting ‘seeded’, which had been changed to ‘seated’ by the time I first saw it.

Re: Prions, Nearly Indestructible and Universally Lethal, Seed the Eyes of Victims

#138

Post by westbywest »

SEJeff wrote: post #49
OldFatCactus wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's some info from a quick google: http://www.mad-cow.org/~tom/victim23.html Looks like the dish is called Burgoo > The center of the burgoo universe is Owensboro, Kentucky

Just when I thought my home state couldn't embarrass me more by being backwards... Thanks!

I've heard more about my home state's alleged consumption of squirrel brain outside the state than in it. And I have a couple kitschy KY cookbooks with recipes for burgoo, entirely rodent free. Every place will have hillbillies who eat odd game meat, if you search hard enough. KY just seems to be a popular target for this topic.

Re: Prions, Nearly Indestructible and Universally Lethal, Seed the Eyes of Victims

#139

Post by nkurz »

0db532a0 wrote: post #137
nkurz wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you say this? And why phrase it so tersely? Merriam-Webster at least (the only one I've checked) says that "deep-seated" is the only correct version: Definition of deep-seated 1 : situated far below the surface 2 : firmly established https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deep-seated “deep-seeded” The word you've entered isn't in the dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deep-seeded

I was trying to make it clear that whiddershins was wrong to say that ‘deep seated’ is the correct usage in contrast to ‘deep-seated’ when Oxford, Cambridge and Merriam-Webster say that ‘deep-seated’ is indeed a correct usage. P.S. Inconsistency: I assumed that whiddershins was complaining about the hyphen, rather than correcting ‘seeded’, which had been changed to ‘seated’ by the time I first saw it.

I see. You were pointing out the hyphenation or lack thereof? I think you might have missed that the earlier discussion was regarding "seated" versus "seeded". Thus your brevity made it looked like you were claiming that the "seeded" form was correct. I don't think anyone else was concerned about the hyphenation.

Re: Prions, Nearly Indestructible and Universally Lethal, Seed the Eyes of Victims

#140

Post by 0db532a0 »

nkurz wrote: post #139
0db532a0 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was trying to make it clear that whiddershins was wrong to say that ‘deep seated’ is the correct usage in contrast to ‘deep-seated’ when Oxford, Cambridge and Merriam-Webster say that ‘deep-seated’ is indeed a correct usage. P.S. Inconsistency: I assumed that whiddershins was complaining about the hyphen, rather than correcting ‘seeded’, which had been changed to ‘seated’ by the time I first saw it.

I see. You were pointing out the hyphenation or lack thereof? I think you might have missed that the earlier discussion was regarding "seated" versus "seeded". Thus your brevity made it looked like you were claiming that the "seeded" form was correct. I don't think anyone else was concerned about the hyphenation.

Yes, I was indeed concerned by my wrongly perceived concern of whiddershins over the parent’s usage of the hyphen.
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