French moratorium on prion studies after two cases of fatal brain disease (2021)

Re:French moratorium on prion studies after two cases of fat... by arghwhat on Friday January 21, 2022 @11:33AM (#30025874)

The largest protein we produce is about 27k amino acids, more complicated than most virophages. That is merely the biggest we produce. I know of no upper limit on protein complexity, and that is before even taking folding options into consideration.

The space of possible proteins - and thus prions - is not at all limited, neither figuratively nor literally. It is most certainly not "countable" without some Nobel-prize inducing discovery.

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Re:French moratorium on prion studies after two cases of fat... by tomxor on Friday January 21, 2022 @11:51AM (#30026148)

> The largest protein we produce is about 27k amino acids, more complicated than most virophages

The only known human prion proteins seem to be a few orders of magnitude smaller than that though, and they don't appear to adapt.

Are you saying it's possible for prions to emerge from large proteins with the ability to adapt?

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