Prions
Scrapie was reduced with proteases but not radiation which meant that the infection was a protein
Human disease
kuru
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker syndrome
fatal familial insomnia
can be hereditary but not necessarily all the time
spongiform encephalopathies because large vacoules formed in brain\\
1982 Prusiner--Scrapie in sheep caused by prions
caused by conversion of glycoprotein PrPc into an infectious form PrpSc
Prpc located on chromosome 20 in humans
recent evidence suggests PrPc is involved in regulating cell death