It’s very clear that the article we are reading is not written for laypeople, but scientists. In terms of an academic article, I understood the wording but not many of the words, though I would no doubt have understood them were I studying chemistry and/or biology.
That the prions were immune to so many tests, or attempts to kill the samples, was really interesting to me. Humans have been getting sick and being infected for quite some time, and we’ve been studying it for a while, but there is so much still unknown. The idea that Prions multiply using the hosts own devices and proteins is almost clever it works so well.
I was a bit confused regarding prnp and the effect it had on the mice. What was the original purpose, and what were the other effects of it being inhibited? It obviously prevented more damage and allowed the brain to attempt to heal other damage, but it must have done something else?
On a different note, the connection with infected meat makes me even more wary of the things we could be picking up when we eat animal products. Certainly, prions are not the worst, though they perhaps are close.