Prions, the causative agents of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, appear to consist entirely of PrP Sc, an orderly aggregated, β sheet–rich isoform of a ubiquitous membrane protein ...

It is the original example of a group of diseases, known as the "transmissible spongiform encephalopathies" (TSE), sometimes known as the "prion" diseases. The diseases include Creutzfeldt Jakob ...