3 ms·
A viral capsid is certainly an evolutionary benefit, but the disease known as "scrapie" astonishingly seems to be able to survive without one for long durations
by chasil 3y ago
A viral capsid is certainly an evolutionary benefit, but the disease known as "scrapie" astonishingly seems to be able to survive without one for long durations.
We are quite lucky that nothing like that targets humans so effectively.
- andrewflnr 3y agoYeah, because scrapie doesn't resemble a virus, so it doesn't have the same survival concerns. A protein in an exceptionally low-energy conformation is more robust than a ring of RNA, film at 11. Anyway, fun fact, the prion that causes scrapie is extremely similar to the ones that cause mad cow disease (transmissible to humans) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (human disease). So yes, we're very, very lucky, so far. Sleep tight.
- chasil 3y agoActually, the worst cases were from Kuru. It has a ghastly origin. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease) (I will upvote you now.)
- andrewflnr 3y agoSure, but Kuru doesn't transmit anywhere near as easily as scrapie does in sheep, which seemed to be the relevant comparison.