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Chiperoni t1_je515ou wrote

Reply to comment by amaurea in Do most animals have to worry about complications from cannibalization? by StressfulRiceball

As far as we can tell, you can't fix a misshapen PrP (aka prion). Those "prions" in the paper you are referencing are yeast proteins that have distinct conformations that can propagate like human prions. All humans have tons of PrP but it's rare for one to become a prion. However, once one does it can start a chain reaction.

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amaurea t1_je55u76 wrote

>Those "prions" in the paper you are referencing are yeast proteins that have distinct conformations that can propagate like human prions.

Thanks, I missed that they were only roughly analogous to prions. That's an important distinction.

And to address my other point myself, it looks like only a few groups of mammals are vulnerable to them, so evolution hasn't had billions of years to work on this, more like tens of millions, I think.

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