Physical bioenergetics of degradation-resistant proteins in diseases and aging

The characteristics of degradation-resistant proteins (prions) suggested a primary physical and then bioenergetic conversion by a fundamental chiral change in one or a few amino acids. The insolubility of heterochiral proteins (chirons) results in protein dysfunction. These inert proteins are logically neither contagious or transmissible, nor of genetic nature. Conformational species of chirons will arise by varied position and kind of converted amino acid(s). Cellular damage will depend on intensity and duration of activity in the cholinergic and immune systems, which are characterized by very high localization specificity and genetic variability. The long-term pathological changes will be general shrinking, sclerotizing and wasting as in AIDS and aging. The impaired immune function and the continuous gene activation may result in proliferation and tumorigenesis. Comparison between infections revealed possible routes of transmission and pathophysiology in spongifom encephalopathies in man and animals. Also, a plausible epidemiology was suggested for these diseases in ruminants (BSE and scrapie) in the UK. Preventive and therapeutic measures are briefly discussed. The headlines of the present concept were naturally related to basic conditions of life given by quantum physics, intrinsic membrane entropy and the dimension of time.