created by HappyDaysInYourFace on 04/06/2017 at 16:21 UTC
98 upvotes, 4 top-level comments (showing 4)
I have general anxiety disorder, and recently I have been losing sleep over a prion phobia. So, how common is genetic resistance to prion disorders in humans? Specifically, my family is of southern Chinese background, and I would like to know if prion resistance would be common in a typical southern Chinese genotype. Thank you.
Comment by NostrilsFullOfSemen at 04/06/2017 at 17:30 UTC
68 upvotes, 3 direct replies
Unless you're genetically related to a particularly small tribe of cannibals from Papua New Guinea, there's a very very low likelihood that you have any sort of immunity or even basic resistance to a prion disease. Not to mention there are multiple types of infectious prions and you would need an adaptation for each one in order to be completely immune. This is unfortunately not going to ease your anxiety, but at least medical science does have treatments for that.
Comment by Yotsubato at 04/06/2017 at 19:37 UTC
22 upvotes, 1 direct replies
You don't have CJD. Don't worry. I eat beef daily and so do many other people, for many years, and nothing happens. Worldwide farms do everything to prevent contamination of meat with prions. Every case of CJD is also widely publicized and source of contamination is found. You should only be afraid, very slightly, if you ate beef in England during the 80s
Comment by bioentropy at 06/06/2017 at 22:06 UTC*
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
You could say that autophagy, especially macroautophagy, is an internal mechanism for prion resistance. Protein misfolding and aggregation, also called proteotoxicity, is something that all life forms have to deal with. So we have many mechanisms to deal with this. Many diseases that have been mentioned in this thread generally develop because these systems are overwhelmed or bypassed.... hope this helps you sleep.
Edit: I'll add that there are also prion-like proteins that are a part of your normal physiology. CPEB3 is one of them, and it's important for your memories!
Comment by [deleted] at 05/06/2017 at 03:07 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
You are extremely unlikely to have a resistance to prion disease. However you are even more unlikely to actually get prion disease. If you really want to make your chances 0% rather than ~0% just don't eat meat.