Article published in Kathmandu Infotiser in August, 2006 issue.
We are told and taught after time to wash our hands before having
food and to maintain hygienic conditions so that we don’t suffer from diseases.
We teach our juniors that diseases are caused by microbes or the microscopic
harmful organisms called germ or pathogens. Unfortunately, scientists have
discovered PRIONS, which are neither pathogens nor organisms but are
proteinaceous infections particles that cause severe and neurodegenerative
diseases in human and animals.
PRIONS- AN INTRODUCTION
Prions are the peculiar type of disease causing agents. They are
proteinaceous infectious particles or more preciously protein molecules. Prions
are much smaller than any virus known so far with so less to calculate. They
were first discovered by Stanley B. Prusiner in 1995 and are found to cause
diseases in both humans and animals. Prusiner was later awarded a Nobel Prize
in 1997 for his research on these deadly agents. Proteins are made up of made
up of amino acids, which can results into prions. These particles cause severe
neurodegenerative diseases in humans and animals causing loss of memory,
movement and other abnormalities.
PRONS- STCUTRURE, CONTROVERSY AND MYSTERY
Like normal protein, Prions being macromolecules, are made up of amino acids. Amino acids are building blocks of all proteins, which are synthesized by the body as well as obtained through diet. Hence, the most mysterious and controversial things are about the origin of Prions. Various scientists have put forth different hypotheses but none of them are satisfactory or convincing. What they collectively believe is that the human body consists of genes that code for normal Prions protein, which later gets converted into infectious and abnormal forms of proteins causing mysterious diseases. It’s same with the animal. The normal prions proteins convert into infectious protein with the help of nucleic acid, which could be the part of a virus. The protein is called a PrP protein that is present even in the human beings.
DISEASES CAUSED BY PRIONS
Prions are found to cause neurodegenerative
diseases in human as well as in other mammals. In human, they may cause
diseases like kuru, creutzfields-jakob disease (CJD), etc. both are
neurodegenerative disorders that ultimately affect the smooth functioning of
the brain. In animals, it causes Scarpie in sheep, Bovine Spongiform
Encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow diseases in cows.
THE CURE AHEAD
So far there has been hardly any progress regarding
cure for Prion diseases. Scientists are still under research about the origin of
Prions and the process by which a normal Prions protein becomes abnormal.
