Some Speculations about Prions, Amyloid, and Alzheimer's Disease

The causes of most degenerative diseases are unknown; however, the causes of three degenerative disorders of the central nervous system have been defined by their transmissibility to animals. These diseases are kuru, Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, and the Gerstmann-Straüssler syndrome.1 , 2 The slow infectious agents that cause these diseases appear to be different from viruses but similar to the agent that causes scrapie, a neurologic disorder of sheep and goats.1 , 3 The term "prion" has been introduced to denote this slow infectious agent, with its unusual properties.3 Studies of the molecular structure of scrapie prions in highly purified preparations indicate that they contain one . . .