Is the pathogen of prion disease a microbial protein?
Though considerable circumstantial evidence suggests that the pathogen of prion disease is proteinaceous, it has not yet been conclusively identified. Epidemiological observations indicate that a microbial vector is responsible for the transmission of natural prion disease in sheep and goats and that the real causative agent may correspond to a structural protein of that microorganism. The microbial protein should resemble prion protein (PrP) and may replicate itself in the host by using mammalian DNA. A similar phenomenon was already described with a protein antigen of the ameba Naegleria gruberi. The various serotypes of the microbial protein may account for the existence of scrapie strains. It is proposed that many microbial proteins may be capable of replicating themselves in mammalian cells eliciting and sustaining thereby degenerative and/or autoimmune reactions subsequent to infections with microorganisms.
