3 ms·

Scary. I think and airborne human transmissible prion disease that kill in a few years is the kind of event that can bring our society back to prehistoric livi

Scary. I think and airborne human transmissible prion disease that kill in a few years is the kind of event that can bring our society back to prehistoric living in just a few decades. Hope it never happens.

relax88 5y ago
Is this even possible? By what mechanism could a prion disease become airborne? Viruses have evolved to more easily infect cells in the respiratory tract for this specific purpose, but prions are much less sophisticated. It seems there may be some evidence they can evolve, but enough to hijack cellular machinery in such a way that they could increase the concentration in the respiratory tract enough to transmit? Seems a bit far fetched but I’m no prion expert.
- hammock 5y ago
  Maybe we should research it
- Aqueous 5y ago
  This article from 2011 suggests aerosol transmission in mice: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3020930/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3020930/
  - subroutine 5y ago
    To attenuate fears a bit... Aerosol transmission was proven possible if you're sitting inside a vapor inhalation chamber equipped with a nebulizer spraying out liquid droplets containing >2% w/v brain homogenates from terminally scrapie-sick mice. Rest assured if you somehow get infected by PrPSc through airborne transmission, someone was trying really hard to make that happen.
    - BoxOfRain 5y ago
      >a vapor inhalation chamber equipped with a nebulizer spraying out liquid droplets containing >2% w/v brain homogenates from terminally scrapie-sick mice I have never been more grateful to be a backend web developer where the worst risk to my health is a headache from flakey libraries. This sounds like a terrifying job!
    - relax88 5y ago
      So wear goggles and a mask while killing zombies… got it!
  - learc83 5y ago
    They used a nebulizer to spray infected brain matter into the air. There was no aerosolized mouse to mouse transfer.
triceratops 5y ago
I find prions unbelievably scary too. What reassures me is that they've had about 3 billion years to wipe out life on earth and haven't done it yet. Which means there must be some natural limits on their spread we don't know about yet.
- da_big_ghey 5y ago
  Because we have had many population isolated. Indians never got black plague because Europeans isolated, but got smallpox when Europeans show up. Syphilis was deadly until making of penicilin, probably came back with Europeans from Indians. If whole world is connected then disease maybe can go through whole population.
  - inglor_cz 5y ago
    Prions infect animals of all sorts as well, so isolation of human populations is of lesser importance here. If, say, oceanic fish were susceptible to some easily transmitted prions, you would have a worldwide epidemics in no time. Fish form a crucial part of almost all food chains on the planet.
  - 8note 5y ago
    I thought syphilis was from America, not India? The Indians still had trade going with the middle east during the black plague, but by some magic it doesn't seem to have made it by land or sea
    - karlkeefer 5y ago
      I think they mean American Indians aka native Americans.
- rcxdude 5y ago
  There's basically one protein which does it (all the variants are just slightly different misfolds or misfolds of a slightly different version of the protein). It's only present in the nervous system and doesn't generally spread from there nor does it very easily make its way there from the skin, gut, or lungs (though of course it does sometimes). It also seems that some people are immune or at least more resistant. This makes a wide spread of it extremely unlikely without some really specific circumstances (like cannibalism, either in humans or in animals, or a deliberate attempt at weaponisation).
newacct583 5y ago
Prions aren't airborne. vCJD and mad cow spread by a feedback loop involving slaughtered infected animal brains being fed to the same animal stock. This case was a technician who stabbed herself with a tool heavily coated in brain matter from infected animals. It's not like a virus where just a few particles is enough to bootstrap an infection. At least, it's never been seen.
- newsbinator 5y ago
  Prions can be airborne. > "Common knowledge is that prions aren't airborne, and can't cause infection that way," said neuropathologist Adriano Aguzzi of University Hospital Zurich, co-author of a study appearing today in PLoS Pathogens. "We were totally surprised and also a bit frightened at how efficient [airborne infections] were." https://www.wired.com/2011/01/airborne-prions-disease/ https://www.wired.com/2011/01/airborne-prions-disease/
  - newacct583 5y ago
    Prion diseases aren't airborne. Yes, you can aerosolize them mechanically and get them to infect mice in a lab. There has never been a known case of airborne transmission between two animals. The shed load just isn't remotely high enough, being a brain plaque and not a respiratory infection.

relax88 5y ago

Is this even possible? By what mechanism could a prion disease become airborne? Viruses have evolved to more easily infect cells in the respiratory tract for this specific purpose, but prions are much less sophisticated. It seems there may be some evidence they can evolve, but enough to hijack cellular machinery in such a way that they could increase the concentration in the respiratory tract enough to transmit? Seems a bit far fetched but I’m no prion expert.

hammock 5y ago
Maybe we should research it
Aqueous 5y ago
This article from 2011 suggests aerosol transmission in mice: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3020930/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3020930/
- subroutine 5y ago
  To attenuate fears a bit... Aerosol transmission was proven possible if you're sitting inside a vapor inhalation chamber equipped with a nebulizer spraying out liquid droplets containing >2% w/v brain homogenates from terminally scrapie-sick mice. Rest assured if you somehow get infected by PrPSc through airborne transmission, someone was trying really hard to make that happen.
  - BoxOfRain 5y ago
    >a vapor inhalation chamber equipped with a nebulizer spraying out liquid droplets containing >2% w/v brain homogenates from terminally scrapie-sick mice I have never been more grateful to be a backend web developer where the worst risk to my health is a headache from flakey libraries. This sounds like a terrifying job!
  - relax88 5y ago
    So wear goggles and a mask while killing zombies… got it!
- learc83 5y ago
  They used a nebulizer to spray infected brain matter into the air. There was no aerosolized mouse to mouse transfer.

triceratops 5y ago

I find prions unbelievably scary too. What reassures me is that they've had about 3 billion years to wipe out life on earth and haven't done it yet. Which means there must be some natural limits on their spread we don't know about yet.

da_big_ghey 5y ago
Because we have had many population isolated. Indians never got black plague because Europeans isolated, but got smallpox when Europeans show up. Syphilis was deadly until making of penicilin, probably came back with Europeans from Indians. If whole world is connected then disease maybe can go through whole population.
- inglor_cz 5y ago
  Prions infect animals of all sorts as well, so isolation of human populations is of lesser importance here. If, say, oceanic fish were susceptible to some easily transmitted prions, you would have a worldwide epidemics in no time. Fish form a crucial part of almost all food chains on the planet.
- 8note 5y ago
  I thought syphilis was from America, not India? The Indians still had trade going with the middle east during the black plague, but by some magic it doesn't seem to have made it by land or sea
  - karlkeefer 5y ago
    I think they mean American Indians aka native Americans.
rcxdude 5y ago
There's basically one protein which does it (all the variants are just slightly different misfolds or misfolds of a slightly different version of the protein). It's only present in the nervous system and doesn't generally spread from there nor does it very easily make its way there from the skin, gut, or lungs (though of course it does sometimes). It also seems that some people are immune or at least more resistant. This makes a wide spread of it extremely unlikely without some really specific circumstances (like cannibalism, either in humans or in animals, or a deliberate attempt at weaponisation).

newacct583 5y ago

Prions aren't airborne. vCJD and mad cow spread by a feedback loop involving slaughtered infected animal brains being fed to the same animal stock. This case was a technician who stabbed herself with a tool heavily coated in brain matter from infected animals. It's not like a virus where just a few particles is enough to bootstrap an infection. At least, it's never been seen.

newsbinator 5y ago
Prions can be airborne. > "Common knowledge is that prions aren't airborne, and can't cause infection that way," said neuropathologist Adriano Aguzzi of University Hospital Zurich, co-author of a study appearing today in PLoS Pathogens. "We were totally surprised and also a bit frightened at how efficient [airborne infections] were." https://www.wired.com/2011/01/airborne-prions-disease/ https://www.wired.com/2011/01/airborne-prions-disease/
- newacct583 5y ago
  Prion diseases aren't airborne. Yes, you can aerosolize them mechanically and get them to infect mice in a lab. There has never been a known case of airborne transmission between two animals. The shed load just isn't remotely high enough, being a brain plaque and not a respiratory infection.