Once upon a time, there lay a community of normal prion proteins sprawled in the deep valleys of land Neuron. They went about their days, grasped onto the surfaces of the neurons, flexibly stretching their bodies and immersed in conversation with each other. No one was exactly sure what function they specifically carried out, but they seemed quite content attached to their neuron surfaces so nobody questioned their motives behind it.
One day, an intruder from a neighboring location entered Neuron and began to trot around the community. Nobody discovered why this intruder had entered their home, yet all they knew was of its identity: PrPSc. This PrPSc was unlike the other normal prion proteins that took on the form of PrPC. It held an alternative formation, and did not fit in with the other normal prion proteins.
Expecting to feel welcome, the PrPSc strolled around, waiting for the other normal prion proteins to embrace it. Instead, the normal prion proteins remained in their positions, grabbing onto the surfaces of the neurons and staying exclusive. As a result, the PrPSc grew bitter over its circumstances and began to attack the other normal prion proteins, conforming them into its own abnormal shape: PrPSc.
This powerful PrPSc eventually spread like wildfire all over Neuron, and all the normal prion proteins became clones of PrPSc. Though they became one conformed community, the normal prion proteins were never able to learn their lesson about exclusivity and lived out the rest of lives, misfolded and abnormal as the repercussions of their situation.
The End.
(This is not a very well-constructed work of prose–I was trying to also go for a satirical side to it, but I don’t think it was clearly shown–but basically put, this “fairytale” is supposed to describe the process of normal prion proteins becoming their infectious isoforms. Nobody really understands why these abnormal forms enter the neuron and latch onto the normal ones, but they do know how it works: the isoform enters the neuron, infects one normal prion protein that is latched on, and then eventually, because it is an infectious agent, all the normal prion proteins take on the shape of the infected isoform: misfolded and abnormal. This is essentially the hypothesis of the process of normal prion proteins becoming their infectious isoforms, and this is what is revealed in a personified form in the story.)