Ping
While prions can be thought of like a disease, that is not a good description. Prions are just misfolded proteins, that can make similar proteins misfold as well.
To understand what this means, proteins can be compared to hundreds of springs attached together in a large blanket of springs. Some of the springs are extension springs, and some are contraction springs. To execute its function, a protein will fold up this blanket of springs into a ball.
And it will fold up exactly the same way every time.
But a prion is a mistake in the folding up process. If it folds up incorrectly, the protein does not work. And to make matters worse, it can “tell” other proteins of its type to fold up incorrectly as well.
Importantly, priors happen constantly in our bodies, and just as constantly, they are destroyed by our bodies. But infectious prions are not *recognized* as prions by our bodies, so they are not destroyed, and can try to tell all the other proteins like them to misfold as well. And once you have this, it will kill you.
Instead of cells going bad, causing cancer, this is like cancer but at a much smaller level.
To make things much, much worse, prions are *extremely* hard to destroy.
“Prions cannot be destroyed by boiling, alcohol, acid, standard autoclaving methods, or radiation. In fact, infected brains that have been sitting in formaldehyde for decades can still transmit spongiform disease.
“Prions can be destroyed through incineration providing the incinerator can maintain a temperature of 900 F for four hours. In an autoclave, prions can be deactivated by using a temperature of 270 F at 21 psi for 90 minutes. If the infectious material is in a solution of sodium hydroxide (pH 14), deactivation will occur after one hour at 250 F and 21 psi.
“A commercial disinfectant called Environ LpH(*) also has been shown to be effective at deactivating prions. Prion disinfection occurs with a 1 percent solution of LpH for 10 hours or with a 10 percent LpH solution for one hour.”
(*) Environ LpH contains:
Isopropyl alcohol
Organochloride of phenol
2-Phenylphenol - two linked benzene rings and a phenolic hydroxyl group.
Phosphoric Acid
Sulfonic acid