Comment on I'll share a troubling fact with you if you share one with me

mox@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• just_an_average_joe@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  So you know how you have dna? Well dna converts into amino acids and long chains of amino acids are called proteins. Proteins are the real workers in our body.

  But you might think, if you knew the dna sequence, you know it all, correct? Not really. You see, dna is only 1 dimensional data. A lot of the information about the functions of a protein comes from its structure.

  So really, if you have a correct dna converted into amino acid chain (a protein), it still needs to be in the correct shape or folding in order for it to function.

  Prions are incorrect foldings of amino acid which obviously do not work. But whats more is that, when these folded structures come in contact with other functioning proteins, they can turn them into incorrect folding as well.

  Since these proteins are still your own (ie they still came from your dna) the immune system doesn’t quite work on them like it would on a foreign substance like bacteria or virus.

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  • eightpix@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I’m glad someone put the prions in here. As a biology student, there was only one thing more terrifying than retroviruses — prions.

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  • WolfLink@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    To add to how scary prions are, you can’t really cure them, and when the prions get on a surface, it’s extremely difficult to sanitize that surface in a way that will destroy the prions. A lot of techniques that kill bacteria or even viruses like alcohol won’t work on them. Heat works but you have to make it extremely hot, much hotter than what’s needed to kill something like a bacteria.

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    • GiveMemes@jlai.lu ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Alternatively, UV light and a some heat should do it pretty quick!! Radical reactions are dope like that

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  • Krusty@feddit.it ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I actually read it as “priSons” and I read all the answer wondering how it would get to prisons lol

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• RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  What if proteins were jerks? Prions.

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