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Prions

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Re: Prions

#11

Post by cogman10 »

dnautics wrote: post #9
purpleflame1257 wrote: post #3

Counterpoint: The Fore people of NZ had kuru from ritual cannibalism. Then they stopped. Eventually, the disease stopped too. Prions are nasty, but we've had 3.5 billion years of protein folding and none of it has ended the world yet.

This comment is spot on (I'm a former prion researcher).

What do you make of CWD?

That one scares me more than current known human prion disease. Mainly because it seems to spread really easily. Other prion diseases seem to practically require cannibalism to spread.

Re: Prions

#12

Post by danesparza »

purpleflame1257 wrote: post #3

Counterpoint: The Fore people of NZ had kuru from ritual cannibalism. Then they stopped. Eventually, the disease stopped too. Prions are nasty, but we've had 3.5 billion years of protein folding and none of it has ended the world yet.

Agreed. Prions almost strike me as an interesting boundary condition for stupid behavior. But if most of the world's meat supply becomes effected by prion caused diseases (think: Chronic Wasting Disease https://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/index.html ) then I think we truly might be in a tight spot.

Re: Prions

#13

Post by jMyles »

falcolas wrote: post #10
purpleflame1257 wrote: post #3

Counterpoint: The Fore people of NZ had kuru from ritual cannibalism. Then they stopped. Eventually, the disease stopped too. Prions are nasty, but we've had 3.5 billion years of protein folding and none of it has ended the world yet.

Globalization is a fairly new thing (on the 3.5B year timescale at least), allowing for the spread of any disease quickly. Whereas isolation and evolution has saved us in the past, it might not have the necessary time in the future (imagine if Covid had been even more deadly, for example).

If COVID19 had been significantly deadly, presumably it would have burned out at the pace of SARS1.

It seems to be close to the sweet spot in terms of being able to spread but still occasionally kill.

Re: Prions

#14

Post by im3w1l »

Prions are misfolded proteins. Because of mutations our proteins have tiny variations in them and it should not surprise me if some of them are more prone to misfolding than others. Currently it barely matters, but in a world rampant with prions, wouldn't we evolve more stable ones?

Re: Prions

#15

Post by masklinn »

falcolas wrote: post #10
purpleflame1257 wrote: post #3

Counterpoint: The Fore people of NZ had kuru from ritual cannibalism. Then they stopped. Eventually, the disease stopped too. Prions are nasty, but we've had 3.5 billion years of protein folding and none of it has ended the world yet.

Globalization is a fairly new thing (on the 3.5B year timescale at least), allowing for the spread of any disease quickly. Whereas isolation and evolution has saved us in the past, it might not have the necessary time in the future (imagine if Covid had been even more deadly, for example).

Prions don't really spread on their own though, yes they are extremely hardy and can survive in soils but that doesn't do anything, if it did and isolation was the only solution we'd have thousands of prion-infested red zones where humans couldn't set foot.

> imagine if Covid had been even more deadly, for example

It'd have been taken more seriously, and it would have had a higher chance of burning itself out. Covid's such a pain in the ass because it hits such a sweet spot, of spreading fast, being highly infectious, and being benign enough (with many of the infected spreading it asymptomatically). For the hell that it is, the one "saving grace" of Ebola is that it debilitates and kills fast enough it's very hard for it to spread, especially as it doesn't have great transmission vectors.

Re: Prions

#16

Post by incrudible »

I remember that in the 90s, when "mad cow disease" was dominating the headlines, it was predicted that there would be an exponential increase in cases, decades down the line. The same point about prions being virtually indestructible was being made, the same concerns about surgical equipment and blood donations were raised.

Suffice it to say, the prion disaster did not materialize, so I'm skeptical about the same story being repeated almost verbatim today. My guess is that prions aren't all that contagious after all, especially after basic food preparation measures.

Re: Prions

#17

Post by adrianN »

danesparza wrote: post #12
purpleflame1257 wrote: post #3

Counterpoint: The Fore people of NZ had kuru from ritual cannibalism. Then they stopped. Eventually, the disease stopped too. Prions are nasty, but we've had 3.5 billion years of protein folding and none of it has ended the world yet.

Agreed. Prions almost strike me as an interesting boundary condition for stupid behavior. But if most of the world's meat supply becomes effected by prion caused diseases (think: Chronic Wasting Disease https://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/index.html ) then I think we truly might be in a tight spot.

Luckily humans can survive quite well without any meat at all.

Re: Prions

#18

Post by andy_ppp »

falcolas wrote: post #10
purpleflame1257 wrote: post #3

Counterpoint: The Fore people of NZ had kuru from ritual cannibalism. Then they stopped. Eventually, the disease stopped too. Prions are nasty, but we've had 3.5 billion years of protein folding and none of it has ended the world yet.

Globalization is a fairly new thing (on the 3.5B year timescale at least), allowing for the spread of any disease quickly. Whereas isolation and evolution has saved us in the past, it might not have the necessary time in the future (imagine if Covid had been even more deadly, for example).

If COVID were more deadly like Ebola it tends to not have long gestation periods where it can be spread without symptoms.

Re: Prions

#19

Post by beiller »

falcolas wrote: post #10
purpleflame1257 wrote: post #3

Counterpoint: The Fore people of NZ had kuru from ritual cannibalism. Then they stopped. Eventually, the disease stopped too. Prions are nasty, but we've had 3.5 billion years of protein folding and none of it has ended the world yet.

Globalization is a fairly new thing (on the 3.5B year timescale at least), allowing for the spread of any disease quickly. Whereas isolation and evolution has saved us in the past, it might not have the necessary time in the future (imagine if Covid had been even more deadly, for example).

If it was more deadly it would spread less quickly. That's how diseases work from my vague university memories of an epidemiology course. They are on a spectrum of deadly to contagious.

Re: Prions

#20

Post by Mordisquitos »

adrianN wrote: post #17
danesparza wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Prions almost strike me as an interesting boundary condition for stupid behavior. But if most of the world's meat supply becomes effected by prion caused diseases (think: Chronic Wasting Disease https://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/index.html ) then I think we truly might be in a tight spot.

Luckily humans can survive quite well without any meat at all.

So can deer.
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