Are misfolded prion proteins functional?

[Soral]

It is said a misfolded prion is a denatured protein.

Infectious prions are very rigid due to the amount of disulfide bonds are stuck together.

 

But they can 'replicate' by turning normal prions into infectious prions.

So does the misfolded prion interact with the normal prion or is it the other way around? How can a denatured protein cause normal proteins to also get denatured?

 

By ''functional'' I mean do these denatured but infectious proteins perform any actual chemical reactions.

Edited July 2, 2014 by Soral