All this talk of fibrils is certainly interesting. I believe, that somewhere around 20 - 25 percent of the BSE cases in the UK did not demonstrate fibril formation in the diseased brain. This is quite interesting, too.
As for these fibrils, I note that in Alzheimers and other diseases like amyloidosis, the scientists don't call these fibrils "infectious". So here we have differences in the fibrils that needs explanation.
The Auburn University patent application [20040137523] filtered the metals from the test samples, and were then UNABLE to amplify their "proteons" (another name for prions?) without them: (PNCs are proteon nucleation centers comprising of metal clusters):
[0048] Filtration of plasma before heat treatment abolishes proteon formation in the retentate. However, recombination of the fractions results in the resumption of proteon formation, and the number of proteons formed is dependent upon the amount of filtrate added back to the retentate. Thus, the PNCs are present in the filtrate.
They also stated that:
[0068].....while proteons washed from the filter contain practically all bands of plain proteons, indicating that misfolded albumin and hemoglobin may be present in proteons
What is truely intriguing is their statement:
[0094].....The presence of non-noble metallic nanoparticles implies that the surrounding organic matrix has either impeded oxygen access to the metallic particles and/or has a significant reducing effect.
[0095] Many of the nanoparticles survived coarsening. The surface energy of the particles provides a driving force for larger particles to cannibalize smaller particles (the surface area to volume ratio for a 1-nm particle is 6.times.10.sup.9 m.sup.-1 and this drops by an order of magnitude for a 10-nm particle). Metallic materials have relatively high solid-vapor interfacial energies (.gamma..sub.SV) and those for copper and .alpha.-iron are around the middle of the range for metallic materials (at .about.2.2 and 3.2 J m.sup.-2, respectively; Murr (1975) Interfacial Phenomena in Metals and Alloys (Addison-Wesley; reprinted by TechBooks, Herdon, Va.)). Thus unless the metal-organic matrix interface has an interfacial energy (.gamma..sub.SM) that is such that .gamma..sub.SM<<.gamma..sub.SV, there would remain a significant thermodynamic driving force for coarsening. Given the kinetics of coarsening, if all that were present were the metallic nanoparticles, room-temperature coarsening would occur at a negligible rate (solid-state sintering involves bulk diffusion, interfacial diffusion, free surface diffusion and evaporation and re-condensation, all of which would be very slow for Cu or .alpha.-Fe at room temperature). See Ashby (1974), Acta Metallurgica 22(3):275-289. See also, Swinkels and Ashby (1981) Acta Metallurgica 29(2):259-281. Although the presence of the organic liquid matrix raises possibilities for mass transport, it appears that the matrix did not provide a path for the rapid transfer of metal atoms since many of the nanoparticles of served in the present work remained extremely fine.
These quotations are also agruements for the various "strains" of TSEs. Different metal clusters (PNCs) with different interfacial energies, will in some cases create true crystals. These crystals will have distinct shapes, and will, likely, preferrentially bind specific proteins (or portions thereof).
How these crystal "seeds" are introduced into our bodies is under debate, and not just on rancher.net.
I also wonder about Drug Elluting Stents. Certain types have been recalled and they too, can cause a sticking together of blood proteins. Patients that stopped taking their blood thinners, be it aspirin or some other drug, developed thrombosis within days and had heart attacks. I am wondering whether there is some type of interfacial energy that builds up on the tissues surrounding the DES. Why does this rapid thrombosis take place after halting the blood thinner??
The coolest thing about science and biology is that our bodies are millions/billions of chemical reactions taking place all the time, all at once. I hope that the research will look at how these rogue metals are entering our bodies. Our local metal researcher, has stated that ingestion (eating/consumption) of metals is the least effective way of contaminating our bodies. Injection would be the most effective, and inhalation would be more effective than eating the metals. If CWD is correlated to major highways, as someone else stated earlier; perhaps there is a link to the exhaust/emmissions coming from the vehicles? MMT (a manganese based fuel additive which several organizations are completely against) is added to 3% of the American fuel (mostly NW states), and is used everywhere in Canada.
Porky I was talking about a scap here on ranchers, but like a typical American you right away want to bring out a gun or a bomb or something.