Question

Are Prions Contagious?

Answer 1

Hint: Prions are the mysterious infectious agents that cause infections in mammals including humans. The disease caused is neurodegenerative disease which can be fatal. An example of infections caused by prions in humans is Creutzfeldt- Jakob disease.

Complete answer:
A prion is a type of protein which can affect normal proteins in the brain and the proteins start folding abnormally. These agents can infect both animals and humans and can be spread through infected meat. The proteins present in the prions are the infectious material found throughout the body of healthy humans and animals. These proteins have different structures which are resistant to proteolytic enzymes which can lyse normal proteins present in our body.

Prions replicate by inflicting the translation of other regular proteins, which then go on to do the same, consequently by initiating a chain reaction. By time, prions aggregate into alpha helical and beta pleated sheets, which will result in the damage of intelligence cells.

Transmission of the sickness happens when the healthy animals come in contact with tissues of other affected animals. As a result of this disease, the healthy and infected cells begin to die off in huge numbers and eventually leads to microscopic appearances in the brain and consequences in the injury of physical and mental health and ultimately death.

So, prions are contagious.

Note: Prions can be destroyed by denaturing it at extremely high temperatures. The high temperatures destroy the prions which can no longer lyse other proteins. These prions are not similar to any microorganisms and do not contain DNA or RNA.