Prion Disease facts
While investigating facts about Prion Disease Symptoms and Prion Disease In Humans, I found out little known, but curios details like:
Cannibalism puts you at risk for prion disease (similar to mad cow), particularly if you eat human brains and bone marrow.
how prion diseases are transmitted?
Eating any portion of the human brain can cause Prion disease, which is incurable and comes with a high mortality rate.
What prion disease causes holes in the brain?
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what causes prion disease. Here are 16 of the best facts about Prion Disease Treatment and Prion Disease Examples I managed to collect.
what's prion disease?
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Prions, which are responsible for neurodegenerative diseases such as Mad Cow Disease, are not alive. They are misfolded proteins that induce other proteins to misfold in a similar fashion when they come in contact.
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Although rare, some people with insomnia develop a prion disease that makes it impossible to fall asleep. This can eventually lead to death. This is referred to as fatal familial insomnia.
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1 in 2000 people in the UK have prions in their blood, which is what causes mad cow disease, in humans called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and are at a high risk of getting said disease.
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About Kuru, an extremely rare disease found only in a remote tribe of New Guinea, which is obtained through an obscure protein called a prion. Here's the kicker: this protein can only be obtained through consumption of the infected individuals brain.
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there is a prion disease which prevents you from getting sleep properly until your brain wears out and you die.
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Prions are transmittable through air. Prions are responsible for mad cow and chronic wasting disease in animals, and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, Kuru, and familial fatal insomnia in humans.
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Prions, which cause diseases like Chronic Wasting disease and Creudzfedt-Jakob disease, are highly resistant to most forms of sterilization. This includes fire, boiling water, strong acids, strong bases, and the passage of time itself.
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There is a deadly prion (what Mad Cow Disease is) that is transmitted almost exclusively through funeral cannibalism. The last know person to be afflicted died in 2005, but the mean incubation period is 14 years,which leaves open the possibility that it may still exist.
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Certain misfolded proteins, called prions, can act as infectious agents, causing an incurable, always fatal neurodegenerative disease. It is spread mostly via cannibalism, and is responsible for both Mad Cow disease in bovine, as well as Kuru disease in humans.
Why is there no cure for prion-related diseases?
You can easily fact check why is prion disease hard to treat by examining the linked well-known sources.
An extremely rare, incurable disease known as Fatal Familial Insomnia. No signs show up until your 40s, but then a wire is tripped, and prions collect in and destroy the thalamus, which controls the sleep cycle. Within 18 months of first symptoms, you die.
Only 40 families worldwide have FFI in their gene pools. Fatal Familial Insomnia is a very rare autosomal dominant inherited prion disease of the brain which leads to hallucinations, delirium and confusional states of dementia with the average lifespan of 18 months after the onset symptoms. - source
Insomnia can kill you. "Fatal Familial Insomnia is a rare prion disease that interferes with sleep and leads to deterioration of mental function and loss of coordination. Death occurs within a few months to a few years [after diagnosis]." - source
A prion disease called, Chronic wasting disease, is spreading fast among wild deer and elk in North America. CDC is monitoring hunters for any signs of prion disease. It takes years for symptoms to show.
