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Nature 425, 673-674 (16 October 2003) | doi:10.1038/425673a
Prion diseases: A nucleic-acid accomplice?
Byron Caughey1 & David A. Kocisko1
Abstract
Prion proteins that trigger a cascade of protein misfolding in the brain are suspected of being the sole transmissible cause of some brain-destroying diseases. But nucleic acids could be their partner in crime.
The seductive notion that a modified host protein might be the sole infectious agent of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) has tantalized the scientific world since the idea was suggested more than 30 years ago1. The ensuing 'prion hypothesis' was developed following the discovery that a host-cell protein called prion protein (PrPC) can exist in TSEs in an abnormal form (PrPSc).
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