Scientists Create Synthetic Rogue Protein

Published on 2004-07-30 by Mark VandeWettering

California scientists have created a synthetic prion, a rogue protein that was used to infect mice with a brain destroying infection.

Prions are the cause of several fatal diseases, including BSE (bovine spongiform encephalitis) and CJG (Creutsfeldt-Jakob disease). It’s a nasty, nasty disease, which was chronicled in Richard Rhodes’ book Deadly Feasts. It’s not exactly comforting synthetic analogs of existing infectious prions have been synthesized in the laboratory. CJD is a disease with 100% fatality, and prions are immune to normal sterilization procedures with are effective against other infectious agents. Not good, not good.