noun
definition
A self-propagating misfolded conformer of a protein that is responsible for a number of diseases that affect the brain and other neural tissue.
Examples of prion in a Sentence
Research on human tissues has confirmed that people of all genetic types can have the rogue prion protein responsible for the disease.
In historic times it was situate on the lower slopes of the hills, Coressus and Prion, which rise out of a fertile plain near the mouth of the river Cayster, while the temple and precinct of Artemis or Diana, to the fame of which the town owed much of its celebrity, were in the plain itself, E.N.E.
Besides these excavated monuments, the Stadion; the enceinte of fortifications erected by Lysimachus, which runs from the tower called the "Prison of St Paul" and right along the crests of the Bulbul (Prion) and Panajir hills; the round monument miscalled the "Tomb of St Luke"; and the Opistholeprian gymnasium near the Magnesian gate, are worthy of attention.
This is the change in conformation that is associated with protease resistance and the accumulation of insoluble aggregates of prion protein.
Research The abnormal prion protein causing vCJD remains a scientific enigma.
By contrast PrPc, the normal prion, is ubiquitous; a cell membrane glycoprotein found on and in all cells studied.
In 1986 the prion hypothesis was still regarded as highly controversial.
The most common position among scientists is that the infective agent with BSE and CJD is a specific form of protein called a prion.
He highlighted how this research has now demonstrated that the applications of Seprion can be expanded to the detection of abnormal prion can be expanded to the detection of abnormal prion in blood.
The prion hypothesis states that it is due to differences in the chemical or tertiary structure of the prion hypothesis states that it is due to differences in the chemical or tertiary structure of the prion protein.
For example scientists so far have failed to find a scrapie prion nucleic acid.
The NIMR researchers set out to explore this using a fragment of the sheep prion thought to be important for aggregation.
Other yet undiscovered genes outside the prion protein gene locus might also confer susceptibility.
In a person infected with CJD, the prion protein can often be seen in a sample (biopsy) of tonsil tissue.
A number of transgenic mice have been established by various groups to study prion protein function.
The disease is called a prion disease because it is caused by a protein mutation in the brain.
Research is underway to find a cure for the disease and other related diseases in the "prion" disease family such as mad cow disease.
Sy, Man-Sun, et al. "Human Prion Diseases."
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a very rare brain disorder caused by an infectious particle called a prion, may also cause encephalitis.