prions sounds very much like ice-nine
You should read about strange matter/strangelets:
France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes
41–50 of 305 posts
Re: France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes
#42> Jaumain’s family has filed both criminal charges and an administrative suit against INRAE, alleging a range of problems at Jaumain’s lab. She had not been trained in handling dangerous prions or responding to accidents and did not wear both metal mesh and surgical gloves, as she was supposed to, says Julien Bensimhon, the family’s lawyer. The thumb should have been soaked in a bleach solution immediately, which did not happen, Bensimhon adds.
Sounds like a bad lab that wasn't following safety procedures. But even that is in question:
> Independent reports by a company specializing in occupational safety and by government inspectors have found no safety violations at the lab; one of them said there was a “strong culture” of risk management. (Bensimhon calls the reports “biased.”)
Why does every lab have to be shut down for 3 months?
Re: France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
"infect" is not the right word. Prions are not viruses, they do not replicate, they ravage other proteins in their surroundings by misfolding them over and over again until it becomes a fatal pathology.
The word "prion" is actually a contraction of the words "protein" and "infection". (edit: although I agree it's not what one might conventionally think of as an "infection")
I know, but it's a poor choice of word since it's nothing like viruses or bacteria.
Re: France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hypochlorous acid denatures proteins, so yeah.
But wasn't there an issue before of prion contamination with surgical instruments used in ophtalmic surgery. I am sure those would have been autoclaved and reprocessed at some ridiculous pH value, no?
yeah I wouldn't count on prions being as easily denatured as other proteins. E.g. mad cow disease spread because prions are not killed by simply cooking / boiling it.
Re: France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, they should stop potentially lethal research procedures to see how they can prevent them. Its not rocket science.
The above comment is idiotic, yes, but so is this response by France. She cut herself while cleaning a blade, something that doesn't seem so wildly uncommon that an entire nation should stop research on an entire class of diseases because of it.
Maybe researchers who kill themselves with dangerous infectious agents are a sign that precautions are inadequate and deserve scrutiny.
Re: France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is an excellent way of thinking about them. For anyone unfamiliar, OP is referring to the Kurt Vonnegut novel which has a fictional state of water (ice-nine) that immediately freezes all other water it comes into contact with into more ice-nine. Edit: I committed a sin and didn't mention the title: Cat's Cradle.
There must be some kind of counter-agent, or life as we know it would not exist.
Not necessarily in a satirical science fiction.
Re: France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes
#47Hm: "long period of uncertainty began on 31 May 2010, when she stabbed her left thumb with a curved forceps while cleaning a cryostat—a machine that can cut tissues at very low temperatures—that she used to slice brain sections from transgenic mice infected with a sheep-adapted form of BSE . She pierced two layers of latex gloves and drew blood" Later in the article: ""We conduct research only on mouse-adapted sheep…
"infect" is not the right word. Prions are not viruses, they do not replicate, they ravage other proteins in their surroundings by misfolding them over and over again until it becomes a fatal pathology.
It's a self-replicating protein fold. Infection is correct. (I Did prion research in grad school)
Re: France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes
#48Could a cure be to stop proteosynthesis of the prion-protein?
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/prions-ar...
"This protein, in its healthy, properly-folded state, is, if not trivial, relatively unimportant. Its complete loss is certainly not catastrophic."
I have no idea how to block proteosynthesis of a single protein in humans, maybe more biologically attuned HN:ners can comment what it would mean (I'm totally clueless of cellular biology).
Re: France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
The word "prion" is actually a contraction of the words "protein" and "infection". (edit: although I agree it's not what one might conventionally think of as an "infection")
I know, but it's a poor choice of word since it's nothing like viruses or bacteria.
Viruses are nothing like bacteria, so it doesn’t make any sense to restrict the term of “infection” to those two.
Re: France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's "effective" mean in this context? The anthrax letters in the US in 2001 certainly dominated news cycles.
And killed very few people. That's what we call terrorism (lots of news coverage for very few deaths) - it's not effective in doing anything but news cycles.
5 envelopes, 5 dead, 17 more infected.