Prions and Prion-Like Transmissible Protein Pathogens

Dear Colleagues,

Prions are infectious proteins that are associated with a group of transmissible neurodegenerative diseases in humans and animals, such as Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease in humans, scrapie in sheep and goats, mad cow disease in cattle, and chronic wasting disease in elk and deer. Unlike traditional pathogens such as bacteria and viruses that always require genetic material DNA for their propagation, the infectious prion proteins are able to propagate and duplicate and spread from individual to individual in the absence of DNA. Interestingly, prion-like proteins have also recently been observed in other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, etc. These share the prion-like features of propagation and transmission from cell to cell, although in contrast to prions, transmission from individual to individual has not be reported in these prion-like misfolded proteins. Now, prions have become the prototypes for these emerging groups of transmissible protein pathogens.
The annual international Prion conference will take place from May 21–24, 2019 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. This Special Issue welcomes prion researchers and experts who wish to highlight new developments in prions and prion-like transmissible misfolded protein pathogens that emerge in the conference. In addition, we shall also accept original research and review articles about pathogenesis, diagnosis, and potential therapeutic responses to human and animal prion diseases. We especially seek manuscripts that report emerging atypical prions and prion diseases as well as innovative strategies and methods for the determination of prions and treatment of prion diseases.
We look forward to your contributions and to a valuable Special Edition that will promote further developments in this exciting field.

Prof. Wenquan Zou
Prof. Jiyan Ma
Guest Editors

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