• ForgetPrimacy@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    Hmmmmmmmm I thought prion diseases were (usually) a result of eating brain matter and occasionally the result of eating non brain matter that shared a body with a brain. By this understanding, the risk of prion diseases wouldn’t be a factor as only the misfolded proteins of a brain are ones that can be risky.

    • motsu@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      A prion is just a misfolded protine that has some adverse behavior that your body can’t detect (there’s a mechanism that if your body identifies a malformed protine, it will terminate the cell making it). Anyway, prions live in this small region in a Venn diagram whereits can’t be detected, but can still replicate and cause harm.

      We mostly think of prion diseases (like mad cow) affecting the brain, but I dont think prions are isolated to the brain… Prion deseases happen to involve the brain a lot because a misbehaving protine in your brain will have a lot more apparent effects