Prions Found in Plants

Prions — the infectious, deformed proteins that cause chronic wasting disease, or CWD, in deer — can be taken up by plants such as alfalfa, corn and tomatoes, according to new research from the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison.

The research further demonstrated that stems and leaves from tainted plants were infectious when injected into laboratory mice.

…“Imagine people, wildlife or livestock eating a cereal or vegetable that could years or decades later cause an incurable, fatal brain disease.

“…There is no other deadly disease agent as bizarre or invisible.”

Prions Found in Plants Cause Concern

File: Stuff They Don't Want You to Know

Prions cause 'Mad Cow' disease and a variety of "brain wasting" and other diseases in people and animals. They form "spontaneously" in response to environmental change, become infectious and also, can be inherited (with or without genetic changes).

Apparently, the original "Gag Order" on prions came from Big Pharma and was enforced under "Confidentiality Agreements" with staff proteinologists (proteinology being the precursor to proteomics). Later on, microbiologists and other scientists and professionals also signed the mandatory Confidentiality Agreements. By the time politicians and governments got in the loop, they had to play along because they didn't understand anything about the issue except that it was way too big to tackle. Especially since Big Pharma, Big Agriculture and Big Oil were holding all the cards.

The Bad News

Prions really are everywhere - in meat, milk, animals, plants, insects, viruses, bacteria, fungi, soil, water, the rivers, oceans and air.

The Good News

We are all one. Prions are supposed to be everywhere - they are an important mechanism that helps us all adapt to our planet's changing environments, and evolve.

In fact, long before prions were "officially recognized" by the scientific establishment and well before Prusiner got his Nobel prize for "discovering" prions, various pharmaceutical and agricultural corporations were synthesizing prions and using the mechanism to create 'protein based' medications and to modify plant and animal genes.

More Bad News

The money guys were too ignorant and stupid to realize that their little profit generators would change the biological foundations of our world.


Here's a Prion Primer I wrote back in 2005. Not too much has changed since then.

Authorities currently recognize about six prion diseases, all of which infect brain tissue and cause brain diseases like Mad Cow (BSE), variant CJD, and fatal familial insomnia. No other prion strains or prion-related diseases are acknowledged officially as related to prions. This official position reflects a policy of denial: a conspiracy of silence.

According to the official spin, Mad Cow and other prion diseases are caused mainly by eating infected brain tissue - and have no effect whatsoever on any part of the body except the brain. Bull puckey. The official spin is about population control, and protecting industry profits - not scientific rigor. If the range of prion strains and prion-related diseases is not acknowledged, then their control will not be regulated, and industry profits are preserved.

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to see that if Mad Cow prions take decades to get from the gut to the brain, they're gonna make a few stops along the way. Fact is, on their way to the brain prions bump into new cells, experience environmental change - and respond by creating new strains.

Different prion strains infect different cells - and cause different diseases and symptoms.

* "...the biochemical isoform of PrP(Sc) found is influenced by the cell type in which it accumulates" - and it does accumulate in peripheral tissues.

* "Diverse human disorders, …arise from misfolding and aggregation of an underlying protein."

* "Prions, once dismissed as an impossibility, have now gained wide recognition as extraordinary agents that cause a number of infectious, genetic and spontaneous disorders"

* "…this hypothesis would shed some light on other diseases not presently classified as prion diseases and in the process of ageing."

* Also see: Games played by rogue proteins in prion disorders and Alzheimer's disease.

Officially recognized infectious prion strains are found in the brain, spinal cord, immune system, nervous systems, muscle, and various organs and glands including the spleen, liver, pancreas, and kidneys. Contrary to popular medical myth, their presence in these diverse locations does have an effect on health and well-being.

The existence of so many different prion strains blocked general acceptance of the prion hypothesis for a time. Old-school scientists argued that because proteins don't have genetic material, prions can't evolve and create new strains. The mystery of prion strains was solved when researchers proved that prions create new strains by shape-shifting - they literally just fold into a slightly different shape to create a new strain - and cause a new disease or modify an existing one.

In fact, even a change in temperature can cause an existent prion to shape-shift, misfold in a different way, create a new infectious prion strain - and cause a different disease.

"Prion shape affects nature of infection"

“UCSF scientists have demonstrated for the first time that a change in the folded shape of a prion protein changes its infectious properties – including the prion’s ability to jump 'species barriers.' The research, based on studies of prion infectivity in yeast, solves one of the great puzzles about prions: If they are infectious proteins with no genetic material of their own and no ability to mutate genetically, how can a single prion exist in different strains that can cause different diseases?

…Studies of the melting temperatures of the prions and their resistance to breakdown by enzymes indicated that the conditions generated prions with different physical properties.

...shape change accounts for strain differences, and it lays the groundwork for research to determine the physical differences that allow a prion to change shape and cause different diseases. ...The studies show that a single infectious protein can adopt different, distinct, self-propagating shapes and that these conformational differences underlie the differences in prion strains.

reply to post by soficrow


PRION PRIMER continued.....

The same protein can misfold in various ways to create new prion strains.

......Scientists have grappled for years with one of the central tenets of the protein-only hypothesis, namely, that a single prion protein, when unaltered by genetic mutation, can give rise to different strains of prions with varying infectivity and other properties. The two research groups established that the strains could be accounted for by different misfolded conformations of the same protein. ...In test tube experiments, the researchers demonstrated that the protein conformations produced at different temperatures propagated themselves as distinct strains - providing templates for the folding of other proteins into the same shapes. Further structural analyses of two of the strains confirmed that the proteins were, indeed, folded differently. ...what we are learning about how to make proteins misfold into different conformations will be directly relevant to understanding mammalian prions, and perhaps even to trying to understand the strain phenomenon in mammalian prions. This includes how strains can affect the virulence of a disease or how likely it is to jump a species.

Prion folding produces strains

Infectious prions enter the body in various ways, not just by eating contaminated food or drinking contaminated water. The way a disease enters the body is called the "vector," the route it uses to get in is called "transmission," and the place it enters the body is called the "point of entry." The places where] diseases exist in the world are called "reservoirs."

The article above talks about milk as a vector with transmission via the oral route, the stomache as the point of entry, and cattle as a reservoir.

As stated above, infectious prions are known to "cause a number of infectious, genetic and spontaneous disorders." This means that prions have a huge variety of vectors, reservoirs in the world, points of entry, and impacts on the human body. It is generally recognized now that "...prion (PrP) diseases, can spread not only through the food supply, but through organ transplants, contaminated medical instruments, the blood supply, or pharmaceuticals made from animal products (like vaccines)." However, the reality is even more threatening to the future of the human species.

Prion vectors, modes of transmission, points of entry, and reservoirs.

Milk, Meat, and Blood

2001 - "We found highest levels of mutant PrP in the brain and spinal cord, intermediate levels in skeletal muscle, heart, and testis and low levels in kidney, lung, spleen, intestine, and stomach. Up to 70% of the PG14 PrP expressed in peripheral tissues. ...Histological analysis of skeletal muscle, one of the peripheral tissues with the highest level of PG14 PrP, revealed features indicative of a progressive, primary myopathy, including central nuclei, necrotic and regenerating fibers, and variable fiber size. These results indicate that the PG14 mutation structurally alters the protein in a way that promotes conversion to a PrP(Sc)-like state, regardless of the tissue context, and suggest that accumulation of PrP(Sc) can have deleterious effects on skeletal muscle cells as well as on neurons.

2002 - "This finding indicates that previous attempts to quantify BSE and scrapie prions in milk or non-neural tissues, such as muscle, may have underestimated infectious titers by as much as a factor of 10,000, raising the possibility that prions could be present in these products in sufficient quantities to pose risk to humans..."

2002 - Prion transmission in blood and urine: what are the implications for recombinant and urinary-derived gonadotrophins?
(Gonadotrophins are hormones that stimulate the sex glands and control reproductive activity. Think prostate cancer and hormone replacement therapies - for starters.)

2003 - The spectrum of safety: "The culprit prion protein causes no immune response and contains no nucleic acid, making preclinical detection impossible. It is also very resistant to conventional forms of inactivation and decontamination. …there is concern that the prion agent may be transmissible in blood, and evidence from sheep models suggests that it can be."

Urine

A protease-resistant prion protein isoform is present in urine of animals and humans affected with prion diseases. "We propose that the detection of UPrP(Sc) can be used to diagnose humans and animals incubating prion diseases, as well as to increase our understanding on the metabolism of PrP(Sc) in vivo."


Soil and Water

2003 - "How does chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and elk spread from animal to animal? … University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers show that prions - infectious proteins considered to be at the root of the disease - literally stick to some soil types, suggesting that the landscape may serve as an environmental reservoir for the disease."
Note: The prions get into the soil via urine.

"It is possible that infectious prions have leached into the water supply, government scientists admit. …The main risks to human health are contamination of water supplies from buried animals, or carcasses awaiting disposal, and pollution of the air from burning pyres."
Note: In addition, prions from urine also will leach from soil to contaminate groundwater, and like prions from other sources, go on to contaminate waterways and the oceans.

Insects

* "Fly larvae and mites were exposed to brain-infected material and were readily able to transmit scrapie (prions) to hamsters. New lines of evidence have confirmed that adult flies are also able to express prion proteins. Several cell types found on the human skin, including keratinocytes, fibroblasts and lymphocytes, are susceptible to the abnormal infective isoform of the prion protein, which transforms the skin to produce a potential target for prion infection."

* "Considering the huge amount of fly larvae that affects each animal, it is important to discuss the possibility that these ectoparasites could theoretically act as reservoirs and vectors for CWD and other prion diseases. It is critical to recognize all the possible factors involved in CWD transmission since ectoparasites could be handled in an easier way than the environmental persistence of infectious prions."

reply to post by soficrow


PRION PRIMER continued....


* Mites as vectors for scrapie.

* Characteristics of scrapie isolates derived from hay mites


Microbes - prions hitchhike on microbes and viruses

* This 1986 paper describes how proteinaceous capsids - prions - use viruses as vehicles of transmission, and how the subsequent RNA interference silences genes.
* Viral influences on aflatoxin formation by Aspergillus flavus.

* "Epidemiological observations indicate that a microbial vector is responsible for the transmission of natural prion disease in sheep and goats … A similar phenomenon was already described with a protein antigen of the ameba Naegleria gruberi. ...It is proposed that many microbial proteins may be capable of replicating themselves in mammalian cells eliciting and sustaining thereby degenerative and/or autoimmune reactions subsequent to infections with microorganisms.”

*

PrPc (prion) expression influences the establishment of herpes simplex virus type 1 latency.

…lack of PrPc expression favors the establishment of HSV latency whereas HSV replication proceeds more efficiently in neuronal tissue that expresses this protein. The data further suggest that PrPc may be involved in a metabolic pathway that culminates in apoptosis of neurons that have been infected by neurotropic viruses.

Genetic and Infectious

1993 - "Discovery of mutations in the PrP genes of humans with GSS and familial CJD established that prion diseases are both genetic and infectious."


In short, the world now is contaminated fairly completely with infectious prions - all of which may affect different cells, and cause different diseases. People can "catch" prion diseases from a variety of places, including from prions hitchhiking on a flu virus for example - and the prions may cause genetic mutations that are passed on to the victims' children.


Take Home Point:

If you want to talk about prions, you HAVE to talk about evolution.

This is horrifying! I thought since I'm a devout vegan I am out of harm's way with Prions.

In corn, tomatoes, etc.. WATER?!?! Sounds like prions (deformed proteins) can be found in everything and science needs to find ways to cure prionic diseases as prevention appears to not be effective even in the strictest of diets, now.

Thank you for the very well written post.. Like most I thought the vector was from eating brain mass... Posting to come back and study in more depth later.. S&F

reply to post by gardener

...science needs to find ways to cure prionic diseases as prevention appears to not be effective even in the strictest of diets, now

Proteins misfold when they're exposed to environmental change, and create prions - it's a natural part of life, and an extremely effective evolutionary mechanism. Generally, only the successful adaptations are passed along - but sometimes, as with the gene that confers immunity to malaria, the flipside is disease (sickle cell anemia).

We DO need to stop changing our environment with contaminants and drugs and chemicals, etc - but we also need to recognize that we are evolving just like everything else on our planet.

What!!

I had no idea this was even possible, I thought I was fairly safe from this disease since I'm a vegetarian...ughhh! This is a horrible disease.

I'm posting now and I'll come back later so I can study this in greater detail, I have to leave for a bit.

S&F

reply to post by 727Sky


You're welcome.

...and I'm impressed you have the intellectual ability to recognize the importance of this issue. Looking forward to hearing your comments later. : up :

reply to post by gardener


Proteins deform rather easily. Or, many do.

Prions are everywhere. If they haven't been detected somewhere yet....they eventually will (so long as protein exists there).

I would not be surprised to find various prions in various areas outside of Earth, either. A lot of the building blocks are known to exist out there....

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


YES!!! ...and thank you.

...which brings us back to the idea that prion formation is an essential mechanism in the evolutionary process. Any comments on that bit?

reply to post by gardener


You can eat grass till there is no grass left, you can drink water only like there is no tomorrow.

You're still gunna die.

May as well enjoy it, if your only reason to not enjoy is it fear.

If you wanna save a moo however, it won't matter if you get deadly brain diseases from eating funky food.

And if the options are to then use science to make nasty nature stop modifying your feed. Well hello there sexy GMO.. come here often?

It's all a bit crazy really. your food sack that holds your brain worried about what other foods it ingests, because nature has an uncanny knack of knocking us off... lol

A video of Prions: Protein Folding and Prion Disease


Part 2 with much more detail

reply to post by soficrow


In my youth i was considered "bright but lazy". This persisted for me until I was around 25. When I was around that age I had a very, very bad flu case. Not being insured, and being a typical hardheaded man, I layed up in bed and did treatment there. I did my nebulizers, by mask if i was unconscious. I took the expectorants during my twice daily wakings, guzzling gator aid, and peeing like a race horse. I stumbled into the bathroom, back to bed with my lips and nails varying shades of blue for 2 weeks straight.

I was...different. Its hard to explain. But the man I was before that was not the man i was emerging from that illness. I had high fevers interspersed with lower fevers when i took motrin or tylenol (it was hard to medicate me being unconscious, and sometimes flailing a bit in delirium). But my memory was unaffected, as was my ability to think. At least, I don't think I got too much "dumber" from fever. But my focus and general outlook on life has changed.

When I was around 28, it changed even moreso when I had a really bad case of shingles on my scalp/forehead. The pain of the shingles wasn't that bad, other than constant dull aching.

My wife has made mention of how really bad illnesses change my personality just a touch.

I have made mention before of how I think viral infections (or possibly inclusive of prionic, now that we are talking about it) could create significant genetic changes in people between the time they are born and the time they die. "Significant" really means that active genetic expression can be altered in this context.

ETA: i think that the first case of the flu, or whatever i was sick with, is where it happened. The second case of shingles could have had some effect....or not. It just seems that after that, I had this intense focus. And I lost some kind of something. Fun, or something like that. Hard to explain.

This is all so very interesting. I had no idea prions were quite literally found throughout every nook and cranny of nature. And as BFFT pointed out possibly outside of Earth as well.

Still reading, lots of research material...thank you!

Thank you very much for this thread, it's fascinating and very informative!

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

...viral infections (or possibly inclusive of prionic, now that we are talking about it) could create significant genetic changes in people between the time they are born and the time they die. "Significant" really means that active genetic expression can be altered in this context.

Absolutely - there's no doubt about it. It's called "epigenetic" change, and it's real. Also, check out my next post. It looks at the larger view of evolution (and evolutionary stress, in the form of rapid environmental change).

reply to post by 727Sky


Great vids, thanks. : up : ...That woman (who's name I forget at the moment ...?) has done major, groundbreaking work on prions. She's the first to show the role prions play in evolution I believe.

Thinking about the effects of environmental change, and recognizing that prion formation is the first response to all kinds of environmental changes (exposure to radiation, chemicals, rapid temperature change, etc.) - I keep going back to the 6th Mass Extinction. And sorry, am ready for bed now - will try to get back tomorrow.

The world’s ecosystems have been plunged into chaos, with some conservation biologists thinking that no system, not even the vast oceans, remains untouched by human presence. Conservation measures, sustainable development, and, ultimately, stabilization of human population numbers and consumption patterns seem to offer some hope that the Sixth Extinction will not develop to the extent of the third global extinction, some 245 mya, when 90% of the world’s species were lost.

Though it is true that life, so incredibly resilient, has always recovered (though after long lags) after major extinction spasms, it is only after whatever has caused the extinction event has dissipated. That cause, in the case of the Sixth Extinction, is ourselves — Homo sapiens. This means we can continue on the path to our own extinction, or, preferably, we modify our behavior toward the global ecosystem of which we are still very much a part. The latter must happen before the Sixth Extinction can be declared over, and life can once again rebound.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzbig deal.....
Just what do YOU propose we actually can really, and practically DO about a substance (prion) that is ubiquitous ( (everywhere)and virtually indestructible.....(cannot be destroyed in the average autoclave.....
That simplY refolds itself to make a different prion in any organ, and that could be one of the causative functions of mutation(evolution)???
Thanks for the extra info, but i looked at this a few years ago, and at my age its too damn late to stop drinking the milk or eating meat etc etc.
Now you say they are virtually in everything organic, MAYBE THEY ARE THE REAL FORCE BEHIND THE VARIETYOF LIFE ON EARTH, AS WELL AS THE DESTRUCTION OF IT.....ILL NEVER KNOW ANYWAYS AND IM GETTING READY TO EXPIRE SOMEDAY ANYWAYS......SAD BUT TRUE.....
lOOK OVER YOUR OWN SHOULDER AT THE RIVER OF LIFE WHICH NEGAT YOU.
THINK WE CAN ACTUALLY EFFECT IT?
Truth to tell ive already written the human race of vermin off..............

reply to post by soficrow


Prions used to worry me until I did some research (it was minimal at that) and found that they are pretty everywhere. You provide some excellent links as well for those looking into this.

I stopped worrying though when I found you couldn't even destroy them by cooking your food, not without destroying the food itself.

Rolling the dice every-time I eat and it just isn't prions.

I happen to believe that autism is an evolutionary adaptation. Could prions be the cause of autism? Interesting thread, and certainly gives information I did not know. There is a kind of symmetry in the idea that the 'building blocks' of life, might also be the 'agents' of death.

reply to post by stirling

Just what do YOU propose we actually can really, and practically DO about a substance (prion) that ...could be one of the causative functions of mutation(evolution)???

How 'bout recognize prions' importance as an evolutionary mechanism? And THINK about the fact that they form "spontaneously" in response to environmental change? And then think about what happens when we dump chemical medications into our bodies' micro-environments - and chemical contaminants into our planet's macro-environment. For starters.

The fact that prions exist has been suppressed for over half a century. Meanwhile, the human activities that create prions proceeded and increased - at a rate that far exceeds the natural order. The impacts on our planet's biological foundations were predictable and are now manifesting.

The conspiracy of silence about prions is a MAJOR one, perpetrated for nothing but profit - and continued for the same reason. At the very least, we should discuss the issue and its implications to life in general, not just on our own species. Such scientific knowledge should be basic, and taught in every school so that everyone can make fully informed decisions about how they live and what they put in their own bodies, at least.

Now you say they are virtually in everything organic, MAYBE THEY ARE THE REAL FORCE BEHIND THE VARIETYOF LIFE ON EARTH,

Yep. You got it. Like I said: If you want to talk about prions, you HAVE to talk about evolution.

lOOK OVER YOUR OWN SHOULDER AT THE RIVER OF LIFE WHICH NEGAT YOU.
THINK WE CAN ACTUALLY EFFECT IT?

We can and we do. Which is why I support open access to information, especially scientific information - to 'level the playing field' and allow everyone the opportunity to make fully informed decisions.

That said - I think prions are way cool, and evolution is astounding. The way things work, we respond to change from the bottom up, starting with non-living molecules - and they help us adapt and evolve. How cool is that?!