Question

What co-factor does prion rely on? How are these arranged within the structure?

Are there any highly conserved area of primary structure in the prion?

Answer 1

recPrP ( or purified PrPCvia sPMCA) together with lipid and RNA which work as a cofactors, for prions. Disease efficiency of prions is very low when only sPMCA is present.

sPMCA have SDS along with Triton X-100 detergents, both these chemical performed a similar function as lipid. recPrP amyloid fiber also have very low infectivity, but prolong expression cause disease. The limited infectivity of recPrP amyloid fibers when binding to their cofactors it create conformational changes.

lipids and polyanions, are well recognized cofactor which as influencing propagation of priono by altering β-sheet content and aggregation. Another mode of action is that the cofactors stabilize the infectious structure of PrPSc through a complex and act as a part of these complex.

Among both cofactor, Lipids, not only affects prion propagation, but also have a high impact on infectivity power of prion. Different type of prion shows different infections properties, because of various structural combination of cofactors.