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25 Oct 2021

Background and context

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) which is known as mad cow disease is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that is transmitted by prions. Prions are proteinaceous particles that do not contain any DNA or RNA. They are infectious elements that are smaller in size than viruses.
The reason for the BSE is the defective folding of the infectious prion folding. In normal cases, the non-infectious form of the prion protein PrPc exists which does not cause any damage. When the infectious form of the prion protein PrPsc is introduced into the body, then it goes and binds to the non-infectious form PrPc and converts into the infectious form PrPsc. Now the body has the infectious form of the prion protein which is then produced exponentially and gets abnormally folded. This abnormally folded infectious prion structure is directly responsible for the diseased state.

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