Meaning & use
prion
Last updated
A small infectious protein particle, lacking nucleic acid, believed to cause certain degenerative brain diseases such as mad cow disease.
See it in a sentence
Prions cause normal proteins in the brain to misfold and clump together.
Scientists study prions to better understand diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
A note on using this word
Coined in 1982 by combining 'protein' and 'infection'; prions are unusual because they cause disease without any DNA or RNA.
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