“A disease known is half cured.”
– Thomas Fuller (2021)
The 21st century has already shown the whole world an enormous amount of overwhelming challenges and changes. In the realm of health, all of the effort has been put into inventing a cure for COVID-19—an evil disease that shocked all continents with many variants, countless medical complications, and utter economic devastation. However, as we move forward, new threats continue to emerge.
Remind yourself of a classical zombie movie – hordes of infected people driven by an insatiable hunger for flesh and brains, with a lone survivor battling against the odds. Nevertheless, where does the zombie virus originate from? Beloved cinematography’s origin of the zombie virus is often attributed to secretive lab experiments or a rabid animal, in the narrative exposition.
What once seemed like fictional nightmares involving diseased animals is becoming a reality. As of the 29th of April 2024 an explosion of such sick creatures, deers to be exact, have been spotted in approximately 33 states in the USA, both in wild habit or held in captivity, as the National Wildfire Health Centre of the U.S Geological Survey portrayed. CWD (chronic wasting disease) is what nightmares these mammals and leads them to 100% predicted fatal outcomes, owing to the external symptoms of lower head positioning, drooling, erasing of people’s fear, aggressive weight loss, coordination problems and abnormal seek for water. Moreover, White-tailed deer that are threatened at risk spread the disease further and may potentially endanger hunters who kill and eat them. In addition, a similar situation took action in the 1980s, when the ‘Mad Cow” BSE was widely spread, which is thought to be a changed variant of the original disease that affected sheep, called scarpie
However, CWD and BSE are not viruses, bacteria, infections, or eukaryote-type living organisms. As it is explored by now, those are estimated to be one of many acknowledged prion diseases that most society is unaware of. What are the mystical prion diseases and why are they utterly deadly?
Prion diseases are caused by mutations in namesake prions. A prion is a regular DNA-free protein found in our nerve cells, essential for their normal function and survival. However, when mutated into reorganization to a misfolded form, it transforms into an infectious agent, estimated to be neurotoxic, and triggers prion illnesses.
The hypothesis proposed by Stanley Prusiner in 1998 suggests that prions do not contain nucleic acids, and their pathogenic protein was named PrPSc, which conveys a modified type of the normal cellular protein PrPC, which is situated on the surface of neurons, through the indispensable nervous system.
Prion diseases are classified as slow infections, due to long-lasting incubation periods. The slow and insidious nature of prion diseases makes them particularly deadly, damaging the central nervous system. These diseases are considered neurodegenerative disorders in humans and animals, as they lead to the destruction of neurons, and their abysmal uniqueness lies in the fact that they can be not only infectious but also occur sporadically or be inherited from the origin, which multiplies up to 3 ways of being contracted
In addition, prion diseases not only lead to damage to the central nervous system, they put the overall physiological body activity at a decrease and risk. The impact of prions on the grey matter of the CNS causes irreversible neuronic loss, and gliosis, and as the National Science Foundation uttered – the cells gather and eventually burst, leaving behind microscopic empty spaces that give out sponge-like appearance, which represent the vacuolization of neurons in the brain matter.
The most common and notorious of the group is Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, reinforcing the incidence of about 1 case per million people. CJD is characterized by multifocal neurological dysfunction, myoclonic seizures, severe cognitive impairments, and death results approximately 8 months after the onset of the sickness. In 2000 NHS proved a peak of 28 deaths from vCJD in the United Kingdom, and that is only one of many types of this illness.
The urgency for further research on prion diseases cannot be overstated. These rare but fatal conditions present a significant threat to both human and animal populations, and their complex nature makes them difficult to detect and treat. As the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer populations shows, prions do not respect species boundaries, posing risks to wildlife, livestock, and potentially humans.
To safeguard public health, it is crucial to prioritize efforts aimed at understanding prions and preventing their transmission. This includes increased surveillance, public awareness campaigns, and cautious consumption practices, especially in areas where prion diseases are known to occur. For instance, consumption of haunting prey is rather disliked, due to the increased chances of being contaminated by creatures such as birds, deer, elk, goats, minks, cattle, and others. The lessons of past outbreaks, such as the “Mad Cow” crisis, remind us of the importance of vigilance. Only through continued scientific research and global cooperation can we hope to protect against the potential dangers posed by these mysterious and deadly proteins.
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