Question

Are prions self-replicating?

Answer 1

Prions:

1. They are proteinaceous infectious particles.
2. They cause several neurodegenerative diseases in mammals, eg-Creutzfeldt Jakob disease.
3. They are self-replicating misfolded proteins.
4. They pass on their conformation to other proteins which leads to aggregation in pathogens.
5. When these pathogens enter a healthy individual, prions induce the properly-folded proteins to alter into prion forms that are linked to diseases.
6. They use the non-essential genes present in the host for synthesizing misfolded proteins.