Prion Definition

prīŏn, prē-
noun
Any of a group of tiny infectious agents composed mainly or entirely of protein: though lacking in demonstrable nucleic acid, prions are capable of self-replication and are thought to be the cause of various degenerative diseases of the nervous systems of vertebrates, as scrapie and kuru.
Webster's New World
A protein particle that is the agent of infection in a variety of neurodegenerative diseases, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and scrapie. Prions are the only known infectious agents that do not contain DNA or RNA. They derive from a normal body protein that becomes irreversibly misfolded, and they proliferate in the body, possibly by acting as a template for further protein misfolding.
American Heritage

A petrel of the genus Pachyptila.

Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Prion

Noun

Singular:
prion
Plural:
prions

Origin of Prion

  • From (a reordering of) the initial letters of proteinaceous infectious particle. Coined in 1982 by Stanley B. Prusiner.

    From Wiktionary

  • From Prion (former genus name), from Ancient Greek πρίων (priōn, “saw").

    From Wiktionary

  • Alteration of pro(teinaceous) in(fectious particle)

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Alteration of pro(teinaceous) in(fectious particle)

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

Prion Sentence Examples

  • Research on human tissues has confirmed that people of all genetic types can have the rogue prion protein responsible for the disease.

  • In historic times it was situate on the lower slopes of the hills, Coressus and Prion, which rise out of a fertile plain near the mouth of the river Cayster, while the temple and precinct of Artemis or Diana, to the fame of which the town owed much of its celebrity, were in the plain itself, E.N.E.

  • Besides these excavated monuments, the Stadion; the enceinte of fortifications erected by Lysimachus, which runs from the tower called the "Prison of St Paul" and right along the crests of the Bulbul (Prion) and Panajir hills; the round monument miscalled the "Tomb of St Luke"; and the Opistholeprian gymnasium near the Magnesian gate, are worthy of attention.

  • This is the change in conformation that is associated with protease resistance and the accumulation of insoluble aggregates of prion protein.

  • Research The abnormal prion protein causing vCJD remains a scientific enigma.

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Words Starting With

PPRPRI

Words Ending With

NONION

Unscrambles

prion

Words Starting With P and Ending With N

Starts With P & Ends With NStarts With PR & Ends With NStarts With P & Ends With ON

Word Length

5 Letter Words5 Letter Words Starting With P5 Letter Words Ending With N