4 ms·
It’s not just a misfolded protein, it’s a misfolded protein that catalyzes other proteins (with the same chemical structure) to misfold. So proximity of a “good
by indiv0 5y ago
It’s not just a misfolded protein, it’s a misfolded protein that catalyzes other proteins (with the same chemical structure) to misfold. So proximity of a “good” protein to a “bad” protein is sufficient to turn the “good” protein “bad”.
It’s an interesting hypothesis to consider that there could be other prion variations out there that misfold other types of proteins, but they don’t misfold the “good” versions of themselves, so they don’t self-replicate and instead just create one-off instances of a broken protein.
- radarsat1 5y agoHuh, that's very interesting. I certainly didn't know that protein folding could be influenced by other proteins around them; I guess I sort of thought that proteins and their structure were fully defined by DNA. But it makes sense.. if a particular folding has an unstable point (ie., could go one way or another), it would naturally be influenced by the forces around it in addition to its "code". Thanks for the insight!
- Doxin 5y agoThere's even specific "chaperone" proteins that help more complex proteins fold correctly. Biology is pretty wild like that :P