Re: Prion research and mad cow disease

["James N Rose" <***>]

> Judith Rosen wrote:
>
>
> These prions can survive autoclave processing! They are not
> killed by normal antiviral (enzyme interfering) measures. They can survive a
> stomach environment and enter a host by passing through the intestinal wall with
> digested proteins-- and are ignored by the immune system! There appears to be a
> genetic predisposition to infection as well as a genetic immunity, depending on
> one's genes for creating this cell wall protein.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Judith


from your depiction ... these effectively are 'magic bullets',
impervious and dangerous once in the open environment.  Biological
versions of bucky-balls.

If they are truly biologic-primitives on the scale you describe,
then they should have been present in the natural environment
long before now.  Either they were, and natural biology once
upon a time found a way of dealing with them, or ..., their
appearance required special atypical and contrived conditions
to form them.

James
122703