朊病毒和疯牛病中蛋白自由基化学问题的探讨

２０年来，人们一直认为朊蛋白病变是导致疯牛病的原因，但对其致病机制却一直未得出公认的结论。其中的“蛋白错折叠”学说被多数人所接受，然而无法解释病中的多菌株现象，在以往的研究中，朊蛋白病变从来没有与任何化学问题有过联系。近年，我们对哺乳动物所具有的此类脑神经疾病进行分析，认为蛋白氧化损伤所形成的序列专一的长寿命朊蛋白自由基所催化下的蛋白氧化交联，可能是致病的根本原因。

Basic Chemistry and Protein Radicals in Prion Diseases and TSE

Prion research led to a dilemma in understanding the unknown etiology of the infectious neurodegenerative disorders in mammalian species. By using multi interdisciplinary approaches to study prion disease and its related research history, it can be concluded from the multiple distinct lines of compelling evidence that the infectious agents in transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) can likely be the long lived and sequence specific prion protein radicals, which are produced from oxidative damage to prion protein molecules in the brains of vertebrates. A few basic chemistry principles have been ignored in the past 60 year investigation on prion diseases and scrapie.