prion
English
Etymology 1
From (a reordering of) the initial letters of proteinaceous infectious particle. Coined by Neurologist, biochemist Stanley B. Prusiner in 1982.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈpɹiːɒn/, /ˈpɹaɪən/; for more information, see prion § Etymology and pronunciation (Wikipedia).
Audio (Southern England) (file) Audio (Southern England) (file) Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -iːɒn, -aɪən
Noun
prion (plural prions)
- (molecular biology) A self-propagating misfolded conformer of a protein that is responsible for a number of diseases that affect the brain and other neural tissue.
- 1999, Matt Ridley, Genome, Harper Perennial, published 2004, page 277:
- Prions retain deep mysteries, the foremost of which is what on earth they exist for.
- 2021 July 28, Barbara Casassus, “France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes two lab workers”, in Science:
- Five public research institutions in France have imposed a 3-month moratorium on the study of prions—a class of misfolding, infectious proteins that cause fatal brain diseases—after a retired lab worker who handled prions in the past was diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), the most common prion disease in humans.
Derived terms
Translations
misfolded protein
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See also
- bovine spongiform encephalopathy
- Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
- kuru
- mad cow disease
- New Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
- scrapie
- chronic wasting disease
- viroid
Etymology 2
From Prion (former genus name), from Ancient Greek πρίων (príōn, “saw”).
Synonyms
- (petrel of the genus Pachyptila): pachyptile (rare)
Translations
petrel from the genus Pachyptila
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Romanian
Spanish
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈpɾjon/ [ˈpɾjõn]
- Rhymes: -on
- Syllabification: prion
Further reading
- “prion”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
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