Learning how prions form opened up new possibilities for research directed toward preventing or reversing protein misfolding. Currently, there are no drugs that slow brain degeneration, but prion formation presents three points at which such an intervention might be possible: (1) the point at which a normal precursor protein folds into a prion form, (2) the point at which the prion form aggregates into fibers, and (3) the point at which plaques, tangles, and bodies form (fig. 7.9). Prusiner’s astonishing observations about prions—that they can reproduce and infect other cells, yet contain no
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