3 ms·
Not being a biologist, I'll ask what might be a dumb question: If the essential elements of each disease are compared, is there a difference? Are the prions as
by goatcode 6y ago
Not being a biologist, I'll ask what might be a dumb question: If the essential elements of each disease are compared, is there a difference? Are the prions associated with each disease different from one another? If so, is there a difference elsewhere that defines between one disease and the other?
- m00x 6y agoHere's good information on the matter: https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1169688-overview#:~:text=Bovine%20spongiform%20encephalopathy%20(BSE)%2C,transmissible%20spongiform%20encephalopathies%20(TSEs) https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1169688-overview#:~:t....
- goatcode 6y agoThanks! I did a bit of digging around, and it looks like the BSE-causing prion can rarely, on ingestion, cause prion formation that causes CJD. So, if I understand correctly, it's not exactly a disease that transmits like a virus, it's one that is induced by the transmission of a diseased particle (the cow prion) when it goes form cows to humans. BSE and CJD seem to be the result of the transmission and induction of the respective prions. It seems comparable to a cow being on fire, and a human catching fire from it -- the latter is a human fire, and the former is a cow fire. Unless I really got that wrong, interesting!