The description of prions as causal agents of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSE), is nowadays accepted as an important breakthrough in biology as revealed the existence of a completely new group of pathogens and a new way of transmission for biological information. A common feature of many neurodegenerative disorders is the presence of protein aggregates in the nervous system and as evidences highlighting the similarities of these proteins with TSE-causing prions increase, the line separating the infectious prions from other protein aggregates becomes thinner than previously thought. However, instead of encompassing all these amyloidogenic proteins under the umbrella term “prion“, new terminology has raised including the terms prion-like, prionoid, quasi-prion or propagon.

The International Prion Conference held in Santiago de Compostela in 2018, offered the perfect forum to discuss this topic and maybe set the basis for an agreed terminology. For that, a round table was organized with several experts on the field to discuss whether Aβ, tau, α-synuclein and others are prions, prion-like proteins, or should be named otherwise. This commentary intends to summarize the topics discussed at the round table and shed some light on this controverted topic, drawing together the opinions of many experts participating at the session.

revealed病毒是传染性海绵状脑病（TSE）的致病因子，如今已被描述为生物学上的重要突破，因为它揭示了一组全新的病原体和一种新的生物信息传播方式。许多神经退行性疾病的一个共同特征是神经系统中存在蛋白质聚集体，并且有证据表明这些蛋白质与引起TSE的pr病毒的相似性不断增加，传染性pr病毒与其他蛋白质聚集体的分隔线比以前想象的要细。然而，不是在总括性术语“ pr病毒”下涵盖所有这些淀粉样蛋白，而是提出了新术语，包括like病毒样，类ion病毒，准pr病毒或丙烷。

2018年在圣地亚哥德孔波斯特拉举行的国际Prion会议提供了一个完美的论坛来讨论该主题，并可能为商定的术语奠定基础。为此，与该领域的几位专家组织了一次圆桌会议，讨论Aβ，tau，α-突触核蛋白和其他蛋白是否是病毒，病毒样蛋白，还是应该以其他方式命名。该评论旨在总结圆桌会议上讨论的主题，并就这一有争议的主题提供一些启示，并汇集了与会的许多专家的意见。