Prion, also known as protein infection factor, prion or infectious protein, is a small non-immune hydrophobic protein that can infect animals and replicate in host cells.
Prion is the old name of protein, which means protein virus. Strictly speaking, prion is not a virus, but a self-replicating and infectious factor that contains no nucleic acid and is only composed of protein. Strictly speaking, prions cannot replicate themselves because they have no DNA or RNA. Its replication mode is that prions (SC PrP protein) contact with normal C PrP protein in organisms, which leads to the transformation of C type into SC type. )
Prion is an infectious pathological factor that can cause central nervous system diseases in mammals and humans. American biologist Szili Prusiner thinks prions are particles infected by protein. Like conventional viruses, prions are filterable, infectious, pathogenic and specific to the host range, but they are much smaller (about 30 ~ 50 nanometers) than the smallest known conventional viruses. No virus particle structure was observed under electron microscope, and there was no immune effect, interferon production and interference. The biggest threat of prion to human beings is that it can cause human beings and livestock to suffer from degenerative diseases of the central nervous system and eventually die. Therefore, the World Health Organization regards prion diseases and AIDS as chronic diseases that are the most harmful to human health in this century.