Mad Cow Anyone? ...Cells Can Cure Themselves of Prions

Prions are infectious misfolded proteins. Prion diseases include Mad Cow disease in humans and Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in elk, deer and similar animals. In addition, Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, diabetes, arthritis and many more common chronic diseases are associated with misfolded prion-like proteins. Long considered incurable, untreatable and unstoppable, new research shows that yeast cells can cure themselves of prions under stress like a high fever.

Yeast Are First Cells Known to Cure Themselves of Prions

Yeast cells can sometimes reverse the protein misfolding and clumping associated with diseases such as Alzheimer’s, according to new research from the University of Arizona.

The new finding contradicts the idea that once prion proteins have changed into the shape that aggregates, the change is irreversible.

….Prions are proteins that change into a shape that triggers their neighbors to change, also. In that new form, the proteins cluster. The aggregates, called amyloids, are associated with diseases including Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s.

….Serio and her students exposed amyloid-containing cells of baker’s yeast to 104 F, a temperature that would be a high fever in a human. When exposed to that environment, the cells activated a stress response that changed the clumping proteins back to the no-clumping shape.

The finding suggests artificially inducing stress responses may one day help develop treatments for diseases associated with misfolded prion proteins, Serio said.

“People are trying to develop therapeutics that will artificially induce stress responses,” she said. “Our work serves as a proof of principal that it’s a fruitful path to follow.”

Sounds like the worst thing you can do for a prion infection is pop an Advil or Tylenol to kill the fever. ...We already have perfectly adequate natural defenses, so why develop therapeutics to "artificially induce stress responses"? That was my first thought.

But. Prions use the immune system to spread in the body - and fevers cause inflammation, initiate an immune response and apparently, help prions to spread through the body.

Another but. The prevailing wisdom for many chronic disease flare-ups is, "Stop the inflammation to stop the flare-up (and prevent the disease from progressing)."

Looks like a conundrum inside a quandary.


Any ideas anyone?

a reply to: soficrow

So would you want to do an infusion of yeast then induce a high fever in patients?

a reply to: soficrow

I would really like to respond to your OP, but I find your avatar of a bulls rectum and testes disgustingly vulgar.
How this gets past the Mods is beyond me

originally posted by: antar
a reply to: soficrow

So would you want to do an infusion of yeast then induce a high fever in patients?

Nooo! ...The key here is the fever - in yeast at least, high temperature disrupts the misfolding and causes the protein to regain its healthy form. ....I have little doubt the same thing happens in human cells, but suspect timing is key.

a reply to: soficrow

News flash. Evolution, with massive, parallel trial and error, reaches the optimal design.

Medical chemistry consists of various hacks that do something and cause collateral damage to something else.
Holistic medicine, starts with the premise of minimizing side effects but the effects are also subtle and hard to measure.

Fever is beneficial. Being infected and recovering from a disease is more beneficial than taking a vaccine for said disease.

If the amyloids are in blood could they do something like process the blood through a machine that heats it to 104 degrees which would activate a stress response in the amyloids, then cool the blood back to normal temperature before it re-enters your body.
I`m thinking of a process similar to kidney dialysis where the blood is removed processed and returned in a loop.

The length of time that the amyloids need to be at 104 degrees to activate a stress response is the key factor for something like this to work.

a reply to: Violater1

I would really like to respond to your OP, but I find your avatar of a bulls rectum and testes disgustingly vulgar.

What rectum?

fyi - I find the rising level of insipid hackneyed discourse on ATS to be vastly more disgustingly vulgar than any body part. And more ruinous.

How this gets past the Mods is beyond me

When ATS launched its NLBS promo, I requested and received permission to use it. It's my response to the insipid hackneyed discourse. A picture is worth a thousand words, you know. ....I likely will go back to my old crow pic soon, but not because I've offended anyone who can't tolerate commonplace reality. There is murder, rape, slavery, pedophilia, starvation and all manner of uncomfortable actuality in our world - if you can't get past an airbrushed bull's anus and testes, you are not capable of addressing the kind of injustice that interests me at a level I consider valuable.

a reply to: InverseLookingGlass

Not a news flash for me. You just synopsized my ongoing hypothesis. More or less.

Thanks.

ETA - My question remains - there IS a conundrum here - how can you use fever to kill prions when inflammation spreads prions through the body?


'

originally posted by: soficrow
a reply to: Violater1

I would really like to respond to your OP, but I find your avatar of a bulls rectum and testes disgustingly vulgar.

What rectum?

fyi - I find the rising level of insipid hackneyed discourse on ATS to be vastly more disgustingly vulgar than any body part. And more ruinous.

How this gets past the Mods is beyond me

When ATS launched its NLBS promo, I requested and received permission to use it. It's my response to the insipid hackneyed discourse. A picture is worth a thousand words, you know. ....I likely will go back to my old crow pic soon, but not because I've offended anyone who can't tolerate commonplace reality. There is murder, rape, slavery, pedophilia, starvation and all manner of uncomfortable actuality in our world - if you can't get past an airbrushed bull's anus and testes, you are not capable of addressing the kind of injustice that interests me at a level I consider valuable.

Wow, what kind of commonplace reality do you live in where you look at the South end of a Bull going North all the time?
That's weird (sick) .

a reply to: soficrow

Thats awsome, I had a fever that peeked at 106 a few years ago, so I guess that will delay any form of prion related diseases by a few years.

originally posted by: Tardacus
If the amyloids are in blood could they do something like process the blood through a machine that heats it to 104 degrees which would activate a stress response in the amyloids, then cool the blood back to normal temperature before it re-enters your body.
I`m thinking of a process similar to kidney dialysis where the blood is removed processed and returned in a loop.

The length of time that the amyloids need to be at 104 degrees to activate a stress response is the key factor for something like this to work.

That is an excellent idea in my layman's point of view! It is this type of crowd-sourced ideas that can help potentially make change for the betterment of the people suffering these problems. Potentially you could email the University and put forth your idea?

a reply to: Violater1

Wow, what kind of commonplace reality do you live in where you look at the South end of a Bull going North all the time?
That's weird (sick) .

I grew up on a farm. Such images are normal in the real world outside the big city. imho - what's weird and sick is the idea there's something wrong with nature.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

Maybe, but prions use the immune system to spread in the body - they seem to head straight for the site of inflammation and get into the cells there. ....That's the conundrum - how can you use fever to kill prions when prions use fever to spread?

a reply to: soficrow

I must admit I find your pic to be very funny and quite refreshing. Yes, pictures can speak a thousand words.

Prions! Cells Can Cure Themselves of Prions! The bull's parts are not the subject of the thread. The bull's parts are thread drift.

Can't help you on the quandary front. Just amazed at yet more revealing biological understanding. Hope it helps people with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's one day. Those diseases are horrible and so common.

Glad to show my support on the bull parts though.

a reply to: lonesomerimbaud

...Just amazed at yet more revealing biological understanding. Hope it helps people with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's one day. Those diseases are horrible and so common.

More common than we know. But thankfully, biological understanding is increasing enough that it's not a totally taboo subject anymore, and researchers are starting to share their knowledge. Here's hoping the needed paradigm shift is coming soon.


PS. and thanks.

Very interesting and I agree with what you say about stopping fevers, it could be counterproductive in the long run.

The wife and I had our genetics done and I have been studying what they know about genes. One mutation I have effects some memory formation. It will allow processing but does cause a destruction of prions in memory formation speedily so that names can't be memorized as much as more complex patterns. So I can remember a face but not the person's name.

Now the mutation is considered a problem because of that, lack of ability to memorize names in high numbers quickly like they teach in school. But When researching a side shoot of this I found that this extra amount of enzyme created by the mutation can possibly be used by the body to dissolve prions of other kinds causing apoptosis. If you try to suppress the formation of this it can lead to problems. I haven't investigated the chemistry that causes suppression or expression of this yet. There are many thousands of articles I need to research. I got a new interest now, one where there is evidence, but a sketchy understanding of the evidence so far. I am sure that there could be gene corrections to shut this off temporarily.

It does bother me a little that I do not remember people's names very easily. My wedding was less than a week away and one of my workers asked me what her name was. I told him Pat. He asked her last name and I told him I didn't know off hand but it didn't matter, It would be the same as mine next week. I remember sequences and the sequence brings up info to initiate another sequence so I can understand and remember that way. I sort of need to throw things around in my mind and tie them to other things.

So, unless I screw up I have a sort of natural protection to prions disease. I think a lot of people actually do and this natural protection may be able to be cycled. I just produce more of this enzyme, most people produce adequate amounts. Maybe what I have said may actually lead someone to investigate this more. I don't have the resources to investigate this farther. This is something a scientist in that field would need to investigate.

I suppose they will make another pill that will screw up people one way or another by shifting the bodies way of doing things. Boosting this enzyme could also destroy necessary antigens on immune cells. I guess this can cause overgrowth of microbes in the gut with people with this defect too according to the research I read.

a reply to: rickymouse

You DO remember that "genetic" testing has more to do with testing proteins than testing genes, right? And do not necessarily distinguish between genetic mutations and 'bad proteins' that result from epigenetic mechanisms like misfolding, right?

a reply to: soficrow

As far as I understand prions are proteins that are misfolded and can be destroyed by causing apoptosis by stimulating specific immune system response aided by enzymes and other means.

Look up what Livewello does and their databases of conditions related to genetic variances. They use information from www.genome.gov... and other sources to do evaluation.

originally posted by: rickymouse
a reply to: soficrow

As far as I understand prions are proteins that are misfolded and can be destroyed by causing apoptosis by stimulating specific immune system response aided by enzymes and other means.

Enzymes and other means can destroy prions in the lab and on work surfaces. In the body, no. There is no cure for prion diseases at this time. You may have scrambled your information or else you're quoting some quack or snake oil salesman.

a reply to: soficrow

Also known as junk DNA, non-coding DNA is the part of your DNA that Ancestry will be testing. It contains no personally identifiable or genetic information.

Does that answer your question about protein coding. From the ancestryDNA site.

I think half of modern medicine in this country is snake oil salesmen.

This isn't snake oil, they only give you evidence to study which is related to gene variants. You choose your own variance reports or create one using GWAS information. Nothing for sale, no advertising for supplements or anything.

Snake oil salesmen have to sell something to be salesmen.