Hidden Prions a Public Health Threat Say Experts

reply to post by Miraj

Evolution generally works to remove individuals that have brains that look like swiss cheese from the population.

The trait that confers immunity to malaria can sometimes cause sickle cell anemia - similarly, we no doubt will find that prion diseases involve protections from even bigger bio-boogeymen. ...We know proteins misfold in response to environmental change - why not stop contaminating the environment and forcing our own adaptation and evolution?

fyi - Prions are adaptive mechanisms - they misfold in response to environmental change and work by altering DNA products. Prions themselves and the changes they cause are inheritable, but do NOT alter DNA itself - unsuccessful modifications tend to disappear after 3 or 4 generations. Successful and beneficial adaptations can become permanent by modifying DNA structure after "proving themselves" over several generations.

reply to post by Nightspore

yes the findings should be distributed of course!. But it still scares the crap outta me.

Prions are an evolutionary mechanism - and most likely, confer more protection than harm - just like sickle cell disease protects against malaria. ...Think about it - we've filled our world with no end of disease-causing agents, so our bodies and systems are under constant attack like they never have been before in history. But prions take several decades to cause clinical disease, use the immune system to spread in the body, do not trigger an immune response, and keep the immune system on chronic alert - few other attackers "get through" to cause fatal infections. For example.

...Looks to me like people with underlying prion disease are better protected against pandemic flu, e. coli, deadly staph like MRSA and maybe more.

reply to post by Quantum Logic

This information and fear mongering comes from mainstream medical, and yet so many will believe it without consideration. Has it ever occurred to any of you that a certain prion could be an evolutionary element that certain genetic codes will adapt to, thereby altering DNA structure to something never before seen? You all have a mind and soul of your own- use them and learn to understand the infinite possibilities of the Universe.

My deepest apologies. I can't believe I forgot to star your post, or that I responded so quickly it seemed to be dismissive of your point. In fact, I've been pushing and promoting the understanding that prions are an evolutionary mechanism for some time. We are on the same page here - and your ideas are well worth discussing.