Question

Explain (in 100 words or less) what prions are, what diseases they cause in humans and what makes these diseases especially difficult to treat.

Answer 1

Prions are disease-causing proteinaceous agents that cause many deadly degenerative diseases in humans and animals.

The word prion refers to ‘proteinaceous infectious particle'.

Most of the diseases caused by prions are deadly because it affects the functionality and brain tissue's structure.

They are entirely made-up of protein that has ability to fold many abstract structural manner.It may transmit to other prions.

Prions contain PrP or prion protein which cause TSEs ( transmissible spongiform encephalopathies ) and other diseases.

Diseases caused by prions in humans are:

• CJD (Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease) and other variants.

• kuru disease.

• Gerstmann–Sträussler–Scheinker syndrome

• FFI (fatal familial insomnia) etc.

Diseases caused by prions in humans are:

• Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or Mad cow disease

• Scrapie disease in sheep’s etc.

There is no effective medical treatment is available for diseases caused by prions because unlike other disease-causing pathogens like bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other parasites, prions do not contain any nucleic acids ( DNA or RNA).

That is why there is no treatment available for diseases caused by prions.