Above is a visual representation of a prion protein, often illustrated to show its normal cellular form (PrPᴄ) and its misfolded disease-causing form (PrPˢᶜ).
🧬 What You're Seeing:
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Normal prion (PrPᴄ): Typically shown in an alpha-helical structure, which is the healthy version found in cells.
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Pathogenic prion (PrPˢᶜ): Characterized by a change in its structure—more beta-sheet content—which leads to aggregates and disease.
Why Prion Structure Matters:
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The shift from alpha-helix to beta-sheet allows the misfolded prion to induce healthy prions to misfold in the same harmful way.
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These aggregates form amyloid plaques, which are associated with neurodegenerative diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and Mad Cow disease.
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