Why Cantonese People Can't Eat Fujianese? Prions Have Something to Say

The "food chain" relationship between Cantonese and Fujianese has always been widely circulated in the world.

The editor also began to wonder: Is human meat really delicious? Will a bite of high-quality Fujian people prolong life?

So, driven by curiosity, the editor searched for information from all sides, trying to carry forward the "cannibalism" to explore the mysteries of science, but discovered a mysterious guy called "prion", which turned out to be the key reason why the Guangdong people have not taken the step of swallowing the Fujian people.

Some people say that prions are a shackle given to humans by God or gods to prevent humans from "cooking" each other.

The reason for this is that the most likely way for prions to spread is through cannibalism. The editor can't help but wonder: Are those friends who like to chew their own paws likely to be attacked by "prions" and lead to a situation of "forced suicide"?

In fact, the phenomenon of "cannibalism" is not a legend. The tradition of "cannibalism" has existed in the famine years and ancient primitive periods in history, and some people in the cannibal tribes still continued it. This shows that not all people who have eaten humans are infected with prions.

Of course, the mysterious veil of prions has only been partially unveiled so far, but what is certain is that cannibalism does not necessarily lead to infection. Only by eating a fellow prion-infected person will there be a certain probability of infection.

So generally speaking, your hands will not be infected if you eat them, so you can rest assured. When you are really hungry, you can chew on yourself to satisfy your hunger.

So who exactly is this guy called "prion", and how did he become so terrifying? Don't worry, the editor will solve this mystery for you.

What are prions?

Prions, also known as prions, protein infection factors, toxins or infectious proteins, are a type of hydrophobic protein that can infect animals and is non-immunogenic in host cells.

Prion is the old name for protein. Prion virus is a protein virus. Strictly speaking, it is not a virus, but a type of infectious factor that does not contain nucleic acid but is only composed of protein.

Prion protein (PrP) is a product encoded by genes in normal cells of humans and animals. Prion protein has two conformations: cellular type (normal type PrPc) and pruritic type (pathogenic type PrPSc). The main difference between the two lies in the difference in spatial conformation. PrPc is a glycoprotein of normal cells with only α-helix, while PrPSc has multiple β-folds, low solubility, and resistance to proteases. It can be seen that prions are normal proteins with changed spatial configurations, which are caused by the denaturation of normal proteins.

The above is an introduction to prions from Baidu Encyclopedia. It can be seen that prions are not actually a virus. They do not contain genetic material, but are just a self-replicating protein . This protein has a peptide chain isomer PrPsc, which can combine with its brother PrPc to bend PrPc into another PrPsc. It sounds a bit Ki-ki-ish.

PrPc is related to nerve cell control and biological rhythm (biological clock), while PrPsc is useless. Therefore, when a large amount of PrPc is converted, the brain tissue of the organism will be destroyed and fibrotic, and the organism will become listless and disordered, and finally die in pain. (As shown below)

To put it simply: after the prion enters the brain, it operates inside the brain, folding the normal brain protein into a new one, eating away at the brain, causing the person to become increasingly stupid until death.

(I have to say, prions are really cruel. Not only do they kill you, they also make you demented before you die.)

The biggest threat of prions to humans is that they can cause central nervous system degeneration in humans and livestock, leading to death. Therefore, the World Health Organization has listed prion disease and AIDS as the most serious diseases that endanger human health in this century.

Although it is not a virus, it can be seen from the above description that prions have the same characteristics as conventional viruses, such as filterability, infectivity, pathogenicity, and host range specificity, but they are much smaller than the smallest known conventional virus (about 30 to 50 nm).

Prions are closely related to human health. Research on them can not only deeply solve the threat they pose to human and animal health, but also provide information for revealing the biological mechanisms, diagnosis and prevention of dementia-related diseases (such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease), and lay the foundation for future drug development and research on new treatments.

Some legendary deeds of "Brother Yang"

1. [Scrapie] and similar diseases

According to historical records, human beings' earliest understanding of prions should come from sheep pruritus.

Scrapie is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy found in sheep, with symptoms ranging from loss of coordination, unsteadiness, restlessness, and unbearable itching to paralysis and death. It is generally dated to the early 18th century based on records from England, France, and Germany. Linguistic evidence suggests the disease may have been around as early as 2,000 years ago.

In the 1960s, British biologist Alps used radiation to destroy DNA and RNA, but found that the tissues were still infectious, so he believed that the causative agent of "scaly sheep" was not nucleic acid, but protein. Because this inference did not conform to the general understanding at the time and lacked strong experimental support, it was not recognized and was even regarded as heresy.

In 1947, mink transmissible encephalopathy (TME) was discovered, with symptoms similar to scrapie. Later, chronic wasting disease (atrophy) of elk and deer, and feline spongiform encephalopathy (FSE) of cats were discovered.

2. Kuru: It is difficult to tell whether it is a natural disaster or a man-made disaster

The first time the disease came into the public eye was in 1950.

In 1950, in the primitive forests of the South Pacific in New Guinea, a tribe calling themselves "Frey people" was plagued by a strange disease. People with this disease may only have headaches, joint pains, and involuntary tremors at first, but gradually, the sick tribesmen will lose their ability to work, and when the disease is serious, they will suddenly dance without any warning. Within less than half a year after the onset of the disease, the patient will almost completely lose his memory, and the disease will worsen within 3 to 6 months of onset, and eventually die in crazy laughter.

The Frei people called this unknown disease "Kuru", which means trembling with fear. The locals believed it was a curse that could only be solved through witchcraft. A medical scientist named Daniel Carlton Gajdusek went to the Frei tribe to investigate Kuru disease. He found that most people suffering from Kuru disease were women and young children, but he investigated the tribe's drinking water, food and soil, and did not find any source of disease.

By chance, Gajdusek discovered that the local people had a custom of cannibalism, which might be the cause of the spread. To confirm this, he inoculated the brain tissue of the dead into non-human primates, and as expected, the disease broke out, thus proving that kuru was contagious. Moreover, men had a high status and ate meat, while women and children had a low status and ate more brains, so the incidence rate was also higher.

3. Mad Cow Disease: The Cost of Capital

In the 1970s, sheep in the UK were suffering from scrapie. At that time, in order to save resources, the British ground the bones of sick sheep into bone meal and added it to the compound feed of cattle, which was fed to cattle on a large scale, thus causing "mad cow disease". This bone meal was exported to EU countries, and of course, it brought "mad cow disease" to other countries. From 1986 to 1999, about 170,000 cattle in the UK were infected with "mad cow disease".

People who eat beef or beef spinal cord contaminated by mad cow disease may also be infected with mad cow disease. Its typical clinical symptoms include dementia or mental confusion, blurred vision, balance disorders, muscle contractions, etc. In severe cases, the patient will eventually die of mental confusion. This disease is called new Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. According to incomplete statistics in 2003, since the first case of "mad cow disease" was issued in November 1986, more than 100 people have died of new Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease due to eating mad cow disease-infected beef products.

4. Zombie Deer Returns

In 2019, many "zombie deer" were found in the United States and Canada. These deer were actually infected with "chronic wasting disease" (CWD), which, like the aforementioned scrapie and mad cow disease, is caused by prions. It mainly spreads among wild deer and can infect North American black-tailed deer, white-tailed deer, Rocky Mountain elk, and moose.

Deer are called "zombie deer" because they look listless, have dull facial expressions, drool, lack coordination, and are not afraid, just like zombies in movies. Deer that get sick will eventually die, with a 100% mortality rate. Currently, the disease is mainly spread among deer, and no cases of transmission to humans have been found.

Humans and prions

There are four known diseases caused by prions: Kuru (Kuru), Creutzfeldt-Jakob syndrome (CJD), Gerstmann syndrome (GSS) and fatal familial insomnia (FFI).

The clinical changes of these diseases are confined to the central nervous system of human beings. Pathological studies have shown that as prions invade and replicate, progressive cavitation occurs in the dendrites of neurons and cells themselves, especially in cerebellar astrocytes and dendritic cells, astrocyte gliosis occurs, and spongiform lesions appear in the gray matter.

Prion disease is a slow viral infection with a long incubation period, slow course, progressive brain dysfunction, and no remission or recovery. Once the disease occurs, all patients will die within 6 months to 1 year, with a 100% mortality rate.

For humans, there are two ways of transmission of prion diseases: one is hereditary, that is, familial prion transmission;

The second is iatrogenic, such as corneal transplantation, implantation of EEG electrodes, careless use of contaminated surgical instruments, and injection of growth hormone taken from the human pituitary gland.

In addition, another important way of spreading prions is to eat beef and cow spinal cord contaminated by mad cow disease. As for whether it can be directly transmitted between humans and animals, there is no conclusion yet, which needs further research and confirmation by scientists.

The currently known inherited prion diseases are Gerstmann syndrome and fatal familial insomnia. They have been determined to be inherited due to mutations in the gene encoding the protein. These mutations make the encoded protein structure unstable and easily transformed into prions. Dozens of families with transmission have been identified. 10-15% of Creutzfeldt-Jakob syndrome is caused by gene mutations, and hundreds of families with transmission have been identified.

"Talking about prions is scary" is not a joke. Humans are still in the early stages of understanding prions, and the research process is difficult and slow, but we have never stopped moving forward. We have also effectively controlled related diseases.

It can be said that the cannibalistic transmission mode of prions is a good illustration of the fact that when you are not worthy of being a human, nature will not allow you to be a human. It seems that the "cannibalism" that Lu Xun has been criticizing in the Diary of a Madman may also be a pun.

Naturally, Cantonese people cannot eat Fujianese, and prions have made a significant contribution to the friendly exchanges between the people of the two provinces.

The editor sighed again: No wonder the monsters in Journey to the West died early. Compared to eating Tang Monk’s flesh, not eating game and not gnawing on the skin of his feet are more conducive to "prolonging life."

Academics have something to say: Share your health tips in the comment section, let’s live together until the time when Thanos appears.

References:

https://baike.baidu.com/tashuo/browse/content?id=e0a309bf56eb0a7890c7b83d&lemmaId=619278&fromLemmaModule=pcBottom&lemmaTitle=%E6%9C%8A%E7%97%85%E6%AF%92

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Zf4y1J7SA?share_source=copy_webhttps://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%96%AF%E7%89%9B%E7%97%85%E7%97%85%E6%AF%92/8238609?fr=aladdin

https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1676869097044123649&wfr=spider&for=pc

https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/34055689