True Nature Of Prions

The True Nature of Prions         Research conducted only over the noncurrent couple of decades has unveiled a new type of morbific agent quite unlike all currently know bacteria and viruses. This pathogen, which causes fatal molest to the brain and surrounding underlying nervous system of humans and different mammals, is called a prion. It has not been completely resolved as to how these agents propagate or how they atomic number 18 composed. The word itself derives from ?proteinaceous infectious fraction, which refers to a belatedly compulsive guessing that the infectious agent causing these diseases consists only of protein, with no nucleic acid genome (all previously known pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses, contain nucleic acids which enable them to reproduce). While one current hypothesis deals with the structural nature of these newly discovered agents, the opposite recently proposed hypothesis attempts to answer the question of replication. The new line of try out appears to support the theory that the prion interacts with the host cells to turn on the governor genes. This gene then begins to manufacture new proteins identical to the prion (Prescott 388-89).

        In an effort to support the first idea that prions have no genetic material, the scientists first subjected a prion sample to enormous amounts of unseeable radiation.



Nucleic acids are relatively fragile molecules, and ultraviolet light soft breaks some of the bonds between the individual atoms of the genetic material. Proteins, on the other hand, form stronger intermolecular bonds and are better equipped to last the higher radiation levels. Using a variety of other methods to study the sample, observing things like molecular mass and particle size, the scientists found that the prion particles remained entirely intact (Prusine).

        Another way to damage nucleic acids is to introduce the molecule to higher temperatures. It was not surprising that the...

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