RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A prion primer
JF Canadian Medical Association Journal
JO CMAJ
FD Canadian Medical Association
SP 1381
OP 1385
VO 157
IS 10
A1 Cashman, N. R.
YR 1997
UL http://www.cmaj.ca/content/157/10/1381.abstract
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.