Recently I read up on mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalitis. which affects a bovine's brain. For some reason I was always under the impression that this disease was viral in nature, but was quite surprised to find out that it wasn't. Nor was it bacterial in nature. It's actually a protein that causes the infection. This type of of infectious agent is called a prion. What these proteins do is cause abnormal folding of other proteins in it's vicinity, and this buildup of damaged proteins end up killing cells. In mad cow disease, as cells are killed, holes develop in the brain of the cattle, which accounts for the nervous and violent actions of these infected animals.
But prions are not just the source of mad cow disease, but numerous types of diseases in various animals AND humans. I look forward to researching what type of diseases in humans these prions can cause.
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