Structure of infectious prions: stabilization by domain swapping

Sichun Yang1, Herbert Levine, José N Onuchic

  • 1Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0374, USA.

Summary

A new domain-swapped trimeric prion (DSTP) model offers a more favorable structure than the beta-helical prion trimer (BPT) for prion infectious units. This DSTP model may explain prion stability, inherited diseases, and prion strains.

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