Jennifer Frazer
February 7, 2019
What separates a lethal prion from dementia-inducing amyloid plaque? Maybe not much
The unsettling evidence that Alzheimer’s Disease may be transmissible under limited -- but definitely nonzero -- circumstances keeps growing.
Last December I wrote about research that revealed that infectious, lethal proteins called prions have the potential to be transmitted on optical medical equipment because they are present throughout the eyes of victims.
This was all the more disturbing in light of a study I had also recently written about that suggested that peptide aggregates – essentially sticky, self-propagating clumps of misfolded protein bits collectively referred to as amyloid -- found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients may be transmissible in the same ways that prions are.
Read more: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com...eQqU35o3HQjjFU