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submitted 6 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 112 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Fuck prions and the horse they rode in on. They're not even alive, so you can't kill them. No vaccine, no cure, and thoroughly cooking your food is still no guaranteed way to get rid of them.

Nature's silent assassins, and they take their sweet time doing it too. By the time you first notice it's already far too late.

[-] bananabenana@lemmy.world 16 points 6 months ago

Prion vaccines would work for sure. Their rarity makes it not all that worthwhile as a public health measure

[-] SparrowRanjitScaur@lemmy.world 11 points 6 months ago

How do you vaccinate against a protein?

[-] Instigate@aussie.zone 17 points 6 months ago

Prion diseases are fatal infectious neurodegenerative disorders and prototypic conformational diseases, caused by the conformational conversion of the normal cellular prion protein (PrPC) into the pathological PrPSc isoform.

The immune system does not develop a bona fide immune response against prion infection, as PrPC and PrPSc share an identical protein primary structure, and prions seem not to represent a trigger for immune responses. This asks for alternative vaccine strategies, which focus on PrPC-directed self-antibodies or exposure of disease-specific structures and epitopes. Several groups have established a proof-of-concept that such vaccine candidates can induce some levels of protective immunity in cervid and rodent models without inducing unwanted side effects. This review will highlight the most recent developments and discuss progress and challenges remaining.

Have a read through the full article and sources below and you can take a look at some novel approaches being evaluated at the moment:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9918406