3 ms·

Yeah, these paragraphs from the paper sounds like the amyloid proteins can sometimes look/act like a prion if you squint: > The far wider relevance of prion me

Yeah, these paragraphs from the paper sounds like the amyloid proteins can sometimes look/act like a prion if you squint: > The far wider relevance of prion mechanisms was first exemplified with the discovery of yeast prions but has also widened considerably with the recognition that the more common human neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, involve accumulation and spread of assemblies of misfolded host proteins in what is often described as a ‘prion-like’ fashion with experimental transmission of relevant pathology in primates or mouse models. However, the importance for human disease was unclear until the recognition of human transmission of amyloid-beta (Aβ) pathology via iatrogenic routes after prolonged incubation periods, causing iatrogenic cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) and raising the possibility that iatrogenic Alzheimer’s disease may occur at even longer latency.

jychang 3y ago
The thing is (despite popular misconception that prions are common and many proteins that can turn into prions), there is only a specific protein that can be a prion- the PrP protein. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_prion_protein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_prion_protein Demonstrating "some other other protein behaving like a prion" is close to nobel prize territory.
- DoingIsLearning 3y ago
  Perhaps a first pass research question is: Do people who undergo spinal, brain, retinal surgery have a higher incidence of Alzheimer when compared with the rest of the population? Otherwise there is no point in chasing this "some other other protein behaving like a prion" avenue.
  - carlmr 3y ago
    >Do people who undergo spinal, brain, retinal surgery have a higher incidence of Alzheimer when compared with the rest of the population? In that case scarring/inflammation might trigger the Alzheimer's though. The interesting part in this article is that the growth hormone was not injected into brain tissue I assume.
- tim333 3y ago
  There are quite a lot of diseases where a prion like mechanism is suspected https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion#In_other_diseases https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion#In_other_diseases ie. some protein other than PrP gets misfolded and then acts as a template to cause more misfolding. I've read up a bit on ALS as my sister has it and while it's not fully understood the most likely cause seems misfolding of a proteins called or TDP-43 or SOD1. Eg from a paper: >recent cultured cell line and animal model studies suggest that the misfolded forms of SOD1 and TDP-43 do self-propagate within neuronal cells and transmit to neighboring cells https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4363329/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4363329/
- Thorrez 3y ago
  Wikipedia seems to say there's another one: >All known mammalian prion diseases were caused by PrP until 2015, when a prion form of alpha-synuclein was hypothesized to cause multiple system atrophy (MSA).[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion

jychang 3y ago

The thing is (despite popular misconception that prions are common and many proteins that can turn into prions), there is only a specific protein that can be a prion- the PrP protein. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_prion_protein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_prion_protein Demonstrating "some other other protein behaving like a prion" is close to nobel prize territory.

DoingIsLearning 3y ago
Perhaps a first pass research question is: Do people who undergo spinal, brain, retinal surgery have a higher incidence of Alzheimer when compared with the rest of the population? Otherwise there is no point in chasing this "some other other protein behaving like a prion" avenue.
- carlmr 3y ago
  >Do people who undergo spinal, brain, retinal surgery have a higher incidence of Alzheimer when compared with the rest of the population? In that case scarring/inflammation might trigger the Alzheimer's though. The interesting part in this article is that the growth hormone was not injected into brain tissue I assume.
tim333 3y ago
There are quite a lot of diseases where a prion like mechanism is suspected https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion#In_other_diseases https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion#In_other_diseases ie. some protein other than PrP gets misfolded and then acts as a template to cause more misfolding. I've read up a bit on ALS as my sister has it and while it's not fully understood the most likely cause seems misfolding of a proteins called or TDP-43 or SOD1. Eg from a paper: >recent cultured cell line and animal model studies suggest that the misfolded forms of SOD1 and TDP-43 do self-propagate within neuronal cells and transmit to neighboring cells https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4363329/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4363329/
Thorrez 3y ago
Wikipedia seems to say there's another one: >All known mammalian prion diseases were caused by PrP until 2015, when a prion form of alpha-synuclein was hypothesized to cause multiple system atrophy (MSA).[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion