Cannibalism

[silkworm]

I would never participate in it because it can kill you. In Africa, notorious for cannibal tribes, it's called Kuru and in bovines I think it's called mad cow disease. As must as I understand, and biology is not my thing, the nervous system attacks itself. You flinch and have no control over your movements and then you die, I think because it eventually effects involuntary function. I guess it's caused by digestion of human protein and can strike at any time after consumption, between a day and decades.

 

With that said, I bet Beyonce is delicious.

[tejaswini]

well mad cow disease{bovine spongiform encephalopathy} is not caused because of digestion of protein but because of prion(virus without a genome).

when the infected parts of a cow are eaten .but we cannot get the mad cow disease b'coz we are not cows or sheep.humans develop a disease called creutzfeldt -jakob syndrome when they come in contact with the prion which as silkworm said is a disease where the nervous system attacks itself.the targets are usually the cns and the pns . the diseased brain looks like a sponge because of the damage done to it. so u can easily identify it.

muscles may not carry the disease. any way my point is if u want to eat a human and u think he/she is diseased u can avoid his/her brain. the rest of the body is likely safe.and i'm sure beyonce is healthy.

[silkworm]

but we cannot get the mad cow disease b'coz we are not cows or sheep.humans develop a disease called creutzfeldt -jakob syndrome

 

That's the other name of it. I couldn't think of it for the life of me. You're saying that you have to eat the brain of an infected person in order to get infected yourself? How does this thing stay around? Brain eating must be alot more common than I thought. To my understanding if you ate another human being you'd have a high likely hood of suffering from kuru.

 

Do you know if there is something similar in cows? I thought that was the deal but I've been up for a long time so everything is getting blurry.

[tejaswini]

. To my understanding if you ate another human being you'd have a high likely hood of suffering from kuru.

 

Do you know if there is something similar in cows? I thought that was the deal but I've been up for a long time so everything is getting blurry.

ur right kuru is caused by eating the flesh of the dead. kuru is caused by eating the infectious brain of the person. for reference visit google.but something similar in cows , i have no idea, but all the diseases caused by prions have almost the same effect. sponging of the brain

[prion]

There's an excellent page on kuru on wikepedia. It only happened in one group of people in Papua New Guinea, not Africa. Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease is different and the vast majority of CJD is sporadic - i.e. people just develop it for no obvious reason. Probably what happened with kuru is someone in the tribe had a sporadic case of CJD, then when the brain was eaten (as part of the funeral), the prions infected other people. Except the disease they got had very different symptoms to CJD and was called kuru. Then when those people were eaten it got spread even more, etc.

 

Mad cow disease probably started the same way, one cow had a sporadic case of BSE and then got 'recycled' into the food chain and it spread that way. Then when people ate the cows they got variant CJD, which is a different thing from 'normal' CJD. It's not just the brain tissue that's infectious. For example, at least one person has caught variant CJD from getting a blood transfusion from someone else with vCJD.

[tejaswini]

. Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease is different and the vast majority of CJD is sporadic - i.e. people just develop it for no obvious reason.

 

. For example' date=' at least one person has caught variant CJD from getting a blood transfusion from someone else with vCJD.[/quote']

for no obvious reason meaning, they just caught from the air or something?and also is it possible to get the disease from blood transfers, then is it safe to drink milk from an infected animal?

[rhiannon]

i am training to be a chef, and i've cooked with all the main meats. i've often thought what it would be like to cook human. can i be the chef at the funeral. though if its meant to be like tough steak then i would probably boil it or put it in a stew to make it tender. i would still eat it.

i heard that human meat has an addictive quality, maybe because its forbidden, and thats why they keep on eating it. do you reckon thats true?!

[prion]

for no obvious reason meaning, they just caught from the air or something?

 

You don't have to 'catch' it from anywhere. It's quite rare to 'catch' prion disease. Most CJD for example is either sporadic ('just happens') or genetic. Remember that prion diseases like CJD are caused when the normal prion protein gets changed into an abnormal structure. It's thought that this can sometimes just happen all by itself - a molecule of the protein in someone's brain just spontaneously changes to the 'bad' prion structure for no particular reason. Proteins are always folding and unfolding constantly so the theory is that very rarely this goes wrong and it folds into the wrong structure. The genetic cases happen when the gene for prion protein has a mutation in it that makes it more likely for the protein to change structure by itself.

 

As for safety of milk, I presume someone must have tested it to see if it was infectious, but I'm not sure.

[silkworm]

... ...but because of prion(virus without a genome).

 

I don't have time right to research this myself, but I've been curious. What exactly does that mean?

 

Biology is not my thing right now, but I am curious about it.

[prion]

well prions aren't viruses. They are just protein molecules. There's a protein in your brain called PrP. I don't know how much you know about proteins, but normal PrP is made of mainly alpha helices. Sometimes a molecule of PrP folds wrongly and gets stuck in a different structure, made of beta-sheets. This is extremely stable and hard to break down. When this beta-sheet PrP comes into contact with normal alpha-helical PrP it can force the normal PrP to also change to the abnormal structure. The abnormal PrP molecules build up and cause damage to the brain. So far this is similar to Alzheimers, Huntington's and all amyloid diseases (each disease is caused by different protein that folds wrongly and builds up). However, if you put some of the brain with abnormal PrP into another animal, that animal would also get the same disease. That does not happen with any other amyloid disease.

 

So a prion is an abnormally-structured protein that can force normal molecules of the same protein to change into the abnormal structure, and that is infectious.

[tejaswini]

. Sometimes a molecule of PrP folds wrongly and gets stuck in a different structure' date=' made of beta-sheets. This is extremely stable and hard to break down. ........................

 

[/b'].

is this mainly genetic?and as far as i know i don't think there is a cure for the amyloid diseases, is there ? so does this mean that a protein that folds wrongly cannot be corrected by the various mechanisms that the body has?i mean instead of breaking it down [as u have mentioned they cannot be], why can't it.be corrected:-)

[tejaswini]

I don't have time right to research this myself' date=' but I've been curious. What exactly does that mean?

 

Biology is not my thing right now, but I am curious about it.[/quote']

i think they are defective viruses produced during the errors that are seen during the replication cycles of the virus. so we cannot call them viruses any more.

[prion]

is this mainly genetic?and as far as i know i don't think there is a cure for the amyloid diseases, is there ? so does this mean that a protein that folds wrongly cannot be corrected by the various mechanisms that the body has?i mean instead of breaking it down [as u have mentioned they cannot be'], why can't it.be corrected:-)

 

Some prion diseases are genetic, where the PrP that the body makes is mutated and so is more likely to get stuck in the abnormal structure. But in most cases there is nothing wrong with people's PrP gene. The PrP protein molecules are always folding and unfolding very very fast and one day one molecule just 'makes a mistake' and gets into the wrong structure - the prion structure. (This only happens to about one in every million people)

 

The body normally breaks down abnormal proteins with protease enzymes. But these don't work on prions - they are almost indestructible because the structure is so stable (all amyloid is very stable). And because it's so stable there's no other way to persuade it to unfold again. When I worked with PrP in a lab, to get rid of it we had to mix it with chemicals that would burn your skin, then put it in an autoclave and blast it with steam under pressure at 121C for 20 minutes, then incinerate it. There's no cure for amyloid diseases because no-one has figured a way of destroying the amyloid/prions inside someone.

 

sorry, we've kind of hijacked the cannibalism thread with prions, but it's my favourite subject!

[abskebabs]

So a prion is an abnormally-structured protein that can force normal molecules of the same protein to change into the abnormal structure, and that is infectious[/b'].

Forgive me if this seems slightly pedantic but do you know the mechanisms involved in how, this occurs? If you do, I would be very grateful if you could tell me how this happens. Thanks.

[prion]

do you know the mechanisms involved in how, this occurs?

 

Nope! The normal protein binds to the abnormal protein and then changes structure. That's it I'm afraid. No-one know why prions are infectious and other amyloid isn't. If you want to get technical then a lot depends on whether the rate-limiting step is formation of the abnormal 3D structure, or aggregation of abnormally-structured molecules. But no-one knows that anyway.

[abskebabs]

interesting....

[tejaswini]

Some prion diseases are genetic' date=' where the PrP that the body makes is mutated and so is more likely to get stuck in the abnormal structure.

The body normally breaks down abnormal proteins with protease enzymes. But these don't work on prions - they are almost indestructible because the structure is so stable (all amyloid is very stable). And because it's so stable there's no other way to persuade it to unfold again.

sorry, we've kind of hijacked the cannibalism thread with prions, but it's my favourite subject! [/quote']

thank u so much that really helps.

[susu]

i like what ud write on the "cannibal card"