Since the term protein was first coined in 1838 and protein was discovered to be the essential component of fibrin and albumin, all cellular proteins were presumed to play beneficial roles in plants and mammals. However, in 1967, Griffith proposed that proteins could be infectious pathogens and postulated their involvement in scrapie, a universally fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy in goats and sheep. Nevertheless, this novel hypothesis had not been evidenced until 1982, when Prusiner and coworkers purified infectious particles from scrapie-infected hamster brains and demonstrated that they consisted of a specific protein that he called a "prion." Unprecedentedly, the infectious prion pathogen is actually derived from its endogenous cellular form in the central nervous system. Unlike other infectious agents, such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi, prions do not contain genetic materials such as DNA or RNA. The unique traits and genetic information of prions are believed to be encoded within the conformational structure and posttranslational modifications of the proteins. Remarkably, prion-like behavior has been recently observed in other cellular proteins-not only in pathogenic roles but also serving physiological functions. The significance of these fascinating developments in prion biology is far beyond the scope of a single cellular protein and its related disease.

中文翻译：

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ions病毒：超越单一蛋白质。

由于蛋白质一词最早是在1838年创造的，并且蛋白质被发现是纤维蛋白和白蛋白的基本组成部分，因此推测所有细胞蛋白质在植物和哺乳动物中均起着有益的作用。然而，在1967年，格里菲斯（Griffith）提出蛋白质可能是传染性病原体，并假定它们参与了痒病，这是山羊和绵羊普遍致命的传染性海绵状脑病。然而，直到1982年普鲁西纳和他的同事们从被瘙痒病感染的仓鼠大脑中纯化出感染性颗粒，并证明它们由一种被他称为“ pr病毒”的特定蛋白质组成后，这种新颖的假设才得以证实。前所未有地，感染性病毒病原体实际上源自中枢神经系统中的内源性细胞形式。与其他传染因子（例如细菌）不同，病毒和真菌，病毒不包含遗传物质，例如DNA或RNA。ions病毒的独特特征和遗传信息被认为是在蛋白质的构象结构和翻译后修饰中编码的。值得注意的是，最近在其他细胞蛋白中也观察到了病毒样的行为，不仅具有致病作用，而且还具有生理功能。ion病毒生物学中这些令人着迷的发展的意义远远超出了单个细胞蛋白及其相关疾病的范围。最近在其他细胞蛋白中也观察到了ion病毒样的行为，不仅具有致病作用，而且还具有生理功能。ion病毒生物学中这些令人着迷的发展的意义远远超出了单个细胞蛋白及其相关疾病的范围。最近在其他细胞蛋白中也观察到了ion病毒样的行为，不仅具有致病作用，而且还具有生理功能。ion病毒生物学中这些令人着迷的发展的意义远远超出了单个细胞蛋白及其相关疾病的范围。