3 ms·
Sure, but this particular study came out of the lab of the Nobel-prize-winning scientist who literally discovered prions. I think it's at least worthy of discus
by traek 7y ago
Sure, but this particular study came out of the lab of the Nobel-prize-winning scientist who literally discovered prions. I think it's at least worthy of discussion.
- Marsymars 7y agoPrusiner has been on the path to this study for quite a while, at least since a talk of his I attended in 2011.
- dnautics 7y agoHe was on that path in 1999 when I skipped a day of high school to attend a lecture he gave. (I also later became a prion researcher, specifically in a lab that worked with Alzheimer's).
- arcticbull 7y agoYou know what they say, when you’ve got a hammer everything looks like a nail. I’m an armchair physician at best, and I’d say that this doesn’t disprove the viral infection thesis at all. That amyloid and tau act as prions isn’t really relevant if they’re in fact produced initially in response to an infectious agent in an attempt to stop its spread. I’d suggest this is particularly likely to be true as attempts to clear out or suppress the amyloid and tau plaques in fact clear them out with no impact on cognition. This is mentioned in the article itself.
- dekhn 7y agoplaques are proxies of disease, not disease-causing or necessarily harmful in themselves.
- arcticbull 7y agoPardon me if I misread, it seemed that the thesis here was Amyloid and Tau 'prion' self-propagation was being identified as a cause of Alzheimers.