Mad Cow Disease!
Sun. February 20, 2000
IN WHICH SY SPEAKS HER MIND
All right, all you disease fans! (haha) Have you ever wondered about mad cow disease? I know I have! So I will randomly rant what I know, in no specific order.
What is mad cow disease?
Mad cow disease, formally bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is a disease that cows get. It results in their brains looking spongy and perforated, and the cows act really clumsy and stupid.
What the hell causes it? And what is the disease, you indescriptive, nasty girl?
The cause of BSE is an oddly shaped protein called a prion (pree-on). A regular protein is kinda spirally, but this one is folded. Like a concertina *cringe*. The way cows were getting BSE was by ingesting cow food that was made from ground up animals that had a TSE (Transmissible SE). So the prion goes on its merry little way into a nerve cell. {*please note that this is a theory) There it meets a happy little unsuspecting normal protein. It induces the poor little protein to take on its shape. That makes TWO, yes, TWO evil little proteins. And so they run around infecting more happy little unsuspecting proteins.
Where does this prion get off being such a killjoy?
It is a powerful and ancient evil!!! The first cases of BSE were described in the 1880's; let's count that as ancient. Biologists used to think that all pathogens (little infectious thingimabobs that we don't like) contained DNA or RNA (nucleic acids--DNA & RNA determine/are genetic makeup for, among other things, reproduction). But when scientists subjected the infectious proteins to ultraviolet light and ionizing radiation, which will destroy the DNA or RNA of all known viruses, they found that they retained their ability to infect. So it was concluded that this new pathogen could not contain nucleic acid. Which is why it's so screwy.
Are cows the only ones who can get TSEs?
No. I said up there in the "what the hell" paragraph that the animals in cow food could have it. Sooo....
Scrapie- Sheep and goats would act stupidly, and would often rub their hides raw, hence the name "scrapie."
Kuru- In Papua New Guinea, cannibalism is still sometimes practiced (though not widely). Brains of dead tribesmen were/are eaten in mourning rituals, and spread the disease.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease- This is the big human one. Patients in different places developed the same symptoms- uncoordination, twitching, and dementia.
How can I reduce the chances of getting one of these diseases?
Hah. Don't eat British beef. Don't eat your relatives. But somewhere, somehow, a prion is watching you.
I am not twitching.~
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