PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Cashman, N. R.
TI  - A prion primer
DP  - 1997 Nov 15
TA  - Canadian Medical Association Journal
PG  - 1381--1385
VI  - 157
IP  - 10
4099  - http://www.cmaj.ca/content/157/10/1381.short
4100  - http://www.cmaj.ca/content/157/10/1381.full
SO  - CMAJ1997 Nov 15; 157
AB  - By biological and medical criteria, prions are infectious agents; however, many of their properties differ profoundly from those of conventional microbes. Prions are "encoded" by alterations in protein conformation rather than in nucleic acid or amino acid sequence. New epidemic prion diseases (bovine spongiform encephalopathy and new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) have recently emerged under the active surveillance of the modern world. The risk of contracting prion disease from blood products or other biologicals is now a focus of worldwide concern. Much has been discovered about prions and prion diseases, but much remains to be done.