prions and neurodegenerative diseases
 

http://www.genetherapy.tv/parkinson-...s-proteins.php

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/no...us-mutant-sod/

Basically, misfolded proteins behave like prions. They hop from cell to cell by leaving the affected cell, going into the space between affected cell and healthy cell, and then start affecting the healthy cell. The period prions are in between these 2 cells makes them vulnerable, and the immune system could be modified to attack them at that moment.

They behave like prions because they are prions
 

Thanks for reviving this Diego. I have started a few threads on this, as my working theory of idiopathic PD and other neurogenerative diseases are all on a spectrum with Jakob Cruetzfeldt Disease (human take on Mad Cow) and like it or not are cousin to the quadruped encephalopathies in cows, sheep and deer. In fact, I think we have a lot to learn from studying the animal forms. I may be out on a limb but the similarities are too many to be coincidental. Here is a comparison:

Protein aggregation and misfolding
Long latency between time of pathological event and onset of disease
Prions infect healthy cells
They tunnel though cells leaving vacuoles - in Mad Cow and JCD it eats through the brain.

The only difference is the prognosis. In BSE (Bovine Spongeiform Encephalopathy) and JCD, fatality is the out come and mercifully it is swift. With PD it is slow going and we usually die with it not from it. The only difference I can see is that our immune system goes into over drive and for some reason it does no good in the others.

JCD is linked to eating infected meat or dairy. However, there is a really interesting alternative suggested by Mark Purdey, an organic farmer, who essentially made it his life work to prove that it is toxic levels of Manganese and other metals that we breathe in chronic low levels of Fine Particulate Matter which alter the behavior of brain proteins and start the ball rolling. I am not going to go on about Manganese but will link to my prior research.

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...ight=manganese

http://www.markpurdey.com/news_the_cause_of_bse.htm


What do you think?