I'll leave this as a comment (and pls feel free to ignore) but if I may make some slight wording suggestions of the info on your prion page: - "misfolded" may be a better term to use to describe the pathogenic form of PrP, as "mutated" suggests abnormalities in DNA/RNA (which can cause misfolded PrP in genetic prion diseases, hosts who have acquired prion diseases have no mutations in the PRNP gene typically) --
- I think your mention of prions causing Alzheimer's is a bit misleading, but for reasons I think I understand. There's an ongoing discussion in the field whether to call all protein misfolding neurodegenerative diseases prion diseases or not. This is contentious for reasons I wont bore you with here, but at this time its not believed prions (misfolded PrP) specifically cause AD!
Sorry for all this wall of text, I hope you don't mind my suggestions! I really loved your last paragraph too, I thought it was a unique interpretation of the "zombie protein" description so frequently used to describe prions. Wonderful work!!!
hi!!! first of all, thank u very much for commenting - i'm glad you like my page! i am very thankful for your suggestions. to be honest, i know very little about prions so your help is appreciated! if you don't mind i will add your suggestions to the page (with credit of course). hold on, let me continue this in another comment
ok continuing. also, if you don't mind - i know the life of a phd student is busy! - i was wondering if you could recommend me some stuff to read about prions? any of your favourite books or papers on the topic would be welcome! if you don't have time that
prematurely hit enter. oops. anyway if you dont have time thats fine, and thank you for your comments anyway! and good luck with your phd - id love to hear about your research!
poggers