Newly deciphered structure suggests how infectious prions replicate

Infectious prions or PrPSc—misfolded versions of the normal cellular prion protein PrPC—convert their normal counterparts into copies of themselves and thereby cause fatal disease. How this conversion works at the molecular level has remained largely a mystery. A study published on September 8th in PLOS Pathogens reports the three-dimensional structure of a large part of PrPSc. The structure argues against existing theories of conversion and suggests how the process might actually work.

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