Engineering A Brain Wasting Disease

Catchy title.

I am no biologist, and I am not a science fiction writer, but I think this is definitely interesting.

By stitching together segments of two species of infectious yeast proteins, called prions, researchers have produced a hybrid prion that can adopt two distinct infectious shapes.

This ability to change conformation allows the hybrid prion to bridge a species barrier and "infect" proteins from two distantly related species of yeast. This phenomenon, say the scientists, may be a key to understanding how prions derived from cows infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or "mad cow disease," can hop the species barrier and infect humans.

Now thats not really interesting, but I have to lay the foundation for the rest of the post.

The scientists conducted their studies using yeast prions, which are similar to the mammalian prions that have gained notoriety for their roles in such fatal brain-destroying human diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and kuru, and in the animal diseases BSE and scrapie.

Both yeast and mammalian prions are proteins that transmit their characteristics via protein-protein interactions in which an abnormally shaped prion protein influences its normal counterpart to assume an abnormal shape. In mammalian prion infections, abnormal, insoluble shapes trigger protein clumping that can kill brain cells. In yeast cells, the insoluble prion protein is not deadly; it merely alters a cell's metabolism.

Sources:
www.scienceagogo.com...

This should be getting your attention now. If you are not familiar with the diseases listed, please take some time to read up on them now.

CJD
CWD
BSE
Kuru ( very interesting in itself )
Scrapie

And you may be wondering just what a prion really is.

Are prions the same thing as bacteria or viruses?

No. Unlike viruses and bacteria, prions lack nucleic acid, a vital component of living cells. They're also nearly indestructible — impervious to heat, radiation, washing, boiling and strong chemicals, including stomach acid.

Pretty dangerous if you ask me.

CJD can be transmitted from human growth hormone, electrodes (sterilization did not work) and various graft procedures. It can even just "happen" (sporadic). They do not know what actually causes sporadic CJD.

So this got me to thinking...

If the yeast prions could be engineered to work with separate forms of yeast (demonstrating the ability to swap species) how hard would it be to swap out some chronic wasting disease into humans? There is already debate when whether or not it can be transmitted already.

The implications could be devastating.

How is something like chronic wasting disease transmitted?

The most likely means of transmission is between animals that are in close contact with each other.

Source

Now if we swap out that chronic wasting disease from animals to humans...

Now if you want a real stretch, a real conspiracy, a real..... science fiction story...

What if something as simple as yeast could do it? We already know that yeast can contain the insoluble protein.
Source

If it could be transmitted to humans, who knows what disease it could create or effect? It would be nearly impossible to escape.... Who knows.

It just gets better and better doesn't it? And all those dead biochemists. Reality is we have way to much people on this planet, they are honing their skills at elliminating us in a thoughful way.

reply to post by jpm1602


..............

If you're right (and I've said the same myself umpteen times) ... wonder if the Afterlife is prepared for the onslaught ? It's dealt with thousands, even tens of thousands at a time, so far .. is it ready for tens of millions ? Will we have to queue ?

If we take it a step further and factor in reincarnation (should it be fact) ... will the Powers that Be here Earthside be expecting or be prepared-for those who've elected to use their return-ticket, lol.

We could turn out to be quite an annoyance, either side of the Great Divide. Could end up being zapped back and forth, back and forth. Could end up forcing a 'dialogue' between the Other Side and Here, along the lines of: ' We don't want them ! They're yours, now. ' and, ' Oh no you don't. They're yours. We don't have room ! '

Might result in our being fitted out with entirely new physical bodies after which we'll be plonked on a newly-decorated planet. With a bit of luck, we might receive superior bodies and technology ... which would enable us to pluck those Elite who were guilty of killing us off while we were earth-bound .. and deposit them somewhere really suitable: rock, extreme heat, extreme cold, rodents to eat, nothing to do .. except think back to the Paradise they'd prepared for themselves after ridding the world of us .. a Paradise they'll never step foot in again.

Yeah, this might work to our advantage and help rid earth once and for all of those responsible for so much misery.

reply to post by Dulcimer


Interesting thread. So, yeast may be the conduit for delivering disease. What is the probability that we will see it delivered on a grand scale through foods that contain yeast? Does beer contain yeast?