Meaning

2 senses
  1. A self-propagating misfolded conformer of a protein that is responsible for a number of diseases that affect the brain and other neural tissue.

    Prion

    прио́нprión

    пріо́нprión

  2. A petrel of the genera Pachyptila and Halobaena.

    китовая пти́чкаkitovaja ptíčka

More definitions
  • (microbiology) an infectious protein particle similar to a virus but lacking nucleic acid; thought to be the agent responsible for scrapie and other degenerative diseases of the nervous system

Examples

3 sentences
  1. Tom got prions from eating monkey brains.

  2. I advise you not to eat the meat, it may have prions still.

  3. Infectious diseases are caused by prions, viruses, rickettsia, chlamydia, bacteria, pathogenic fungi and protozoa.

    deAnsteckende Krankheiten werden verursacht durch Prionen, Viren, Rickettsien, Chlamydien, Bakterien, pathogene Pilze und Protozoen. — Zaghawa

Translations

8 languages
Українська
By meaning 1
misfolded protein:
Русский
By meaning 2
misfolded protein:
type of petrel:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
misfolded protein:

Origin

From (a reordering of) the initial letters of proteinaceous infectious particle. Coined by

From (a reordering of) the initial letters of proteinaceous infectious particle. Coined by American neurologist and biochemist Stanley B. Prusiner in 1982.

From Prion (former genus name), from Ancient Greek πρίων (príōn, “saw”).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

prion — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto