title: Birth of a prion: spontaneous generation revisited.
abstract: The proposal that the transmissible agent in prion diseases can be a conformationally altered host protein that multiplies by autocatalytic conversion has gained wide acceptance. Recent work shows that the agent, the prion, can be replicated in a cell-free system, that it can be generated de novo, and that the strain-specific properties of prions are encoded by conformational variations of the underlying protein.
authors.affiliation: Scripps Florida, Jupiter 33480, USA. charlesw@scripps.edu
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Weissmann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002474:Cell-Free System / Q000378:metabolism; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D018621:PrPC Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011328:Prions / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011487:Protein Conformation
chemical_list: D005656:Fungal Proteins; D018621:PrPC Proteins; D011328:Prions