Prion-caused diseases

Abstract

Introduction: in our daily life we ​​are exposed to different pathogens that cause various diseases and reactions in our body. When we think about them we consider bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa and parasites; but we are unlikely to think of a protein that can cause death. Objective: to describe the diseases caused by prions. Method: a bibliographic review was carried out by searching for scientific publications in different databases such as: PubMed, Scielo, Medline, Google Scholar, Elsevier. For the research, keywords such as prions, prion diseases, transmission factors, degenerative neuropathologies, proteins were used. Development: factors related to the transmission of TSEs such as exposure to contaminated tissue must be considered to prevent their spread and keep the percentage of deaths low, for that reason, current medicine investigates protocols focused on prevention and develops research that results in the development of treatments to improve the quality of life of infected patients and even one day cure them. Final considerations: the study of the origin and pathophysiology of prions is determined by the expression of the mutated PRNP gene, one of the main factors for its transmission is exposure to contaminated tissue, these data are important elements to recommend the performance of longitudinal studies that prospectively evaluate the possibility of detecting TSEs in clinical patients using specific protein markers for PrPSc.