biology of Prions

Vernica Ins Cacace

Instituto de investigaciones cardiologicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires-Conicet
Buenos Aires
Argentina
Jun, 2011
Corresponding autor: veroinesc@yahoo.com.ar

Abstract
In this paper we will review various aspects of the biology of prions and focused
on what is currently known about the mammalian PrP prion. Also briefly
describe the prions of yeast and other fungi.
Prions are infectious proteins behaving like genes, ie proteins that not only
contain genetic information in its tertiary structure, ie its shape, but are also able
to transmit and replicate in a manner analogous to genes but through very
different mechanisms. The term prion is derived from "proteinaceous infectious
particle" and arose from the Prusiner hypothesis that the infectious agent of
certain neurodegenerative diseases was only in a protein, without the
participation of nucleic acids. Currently there are several known types of prion,
in addition to the originally described, which are pathogens of mammals and
they has found in yeast and other fungi too. Prion proteins are ubiquitous and
not always detrimental to their hosts. This vision of the prion as a causative
agent of disease is changing, finding more and more evidence that could have
important roles in cells and contribute to the phenotypic plasticity of organisms
through the mechanisms of evolution.

Keybords: prion protein, neurodegenerative disease, protein conformation