Given that there is currently no cure for mad cow disease, what is likely to be the most effective action to reduce its transmission?
Mad cow disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is a contagious neurodegenerative disease of cattle. The causative agent for this disease is a prion which stands for infectious protein particles. A prion is different from usual infectious agents such as viruses or bacteria that are capable of propagation. The prion protein is misfolded and is able to induce misfolding in another protein molecule, thus transmitting the disease. The aggregation of the misfolded protein in the central nervous system causes neurodegeneration.
Protein folding refers to the three-dimensional structure of a protein. The primary structure of a protein constitutes the sequence of the amino acids in the protein. The protein molecules then fold into the final shape by interactions such as hydrogen bonds, ionic bonds between the amino acids. The folding of a protein is usually guided by the primary structure. Certain cellular components also regulate the protein folding process and misfolded proteins are degraded. The misfolded protein is said to be denatured.
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