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Prions

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Re: Prions

#21

Post by odyssey7 »

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.

I’m not sure this would save you. The deer get CWD by eating the grass other deer have been around. A zoonotic CWD would find its way into plant-based diets.

Re: Prions

#22

Post by mc32 »

Prions are like the real-life version of ice-nine. Just much slower moving.

Re: Prions

#23

Post by throwaway_kufu »

I wonder if there might not be something similar to the Prion mechanism that cause the healthy brain protein to “change chiralities” and join the prion group on the atomic level that might give insight into the matter-antimatter asymmetry problem.

Re: Prions

#26

Post by JKCalhoun »

> Ancient and odd but relatively easy to talk about, viruses are the perfect vector for the horrors peddled by the BBC, New York Times, and their ilk.

Proceeds to peddle the "horrors" of prions.

Re: Prions

#27

Post by rjsw »

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.

ITYM affected, not effected.

Re: Prions

#29

Post by ipython »

incrudible wrote: post #16

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 sto…

The concerns about blood donations continue to this day. A few years ago I went to a blood bank event not even thinking about vCJD and was turned away because I happened to live in Europe for more than 6 months in the early 90s.

It is a bit unnerving to know you may or may not have a disease that there is no test for, and symptoms may not appear until decades later.

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