What are the similarities between Prion and virus?
They are both disease causing
http://learnsomescience.com/microbiology/viruses-viroids-and-prions/
To identify the similarities between prions and viruses, we can compare their characteristics:
1. Biological Agents: Both prions and viruses are biological agents that can cause disease in animals, including humans.
2. Replication: Both prions and viruses have the ability to replicate inside host cells. However, they employ different mechanisms for replication.
3. Pathogenicity: Both prions and viruses can be pathogenic, meaning they can cause diseases. Prions are associated with a group of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), whereas viruses can cause a wide range of diseases in humans and other organisms.
4. Proteinaceous Nature: Prions are unique in their proteinaceous nature, as they are misfolded forms of normal cellular proteins. In contrast, viruses consist of genetic material (DNA or RNA) surrounded by a protein coat called a capsid.
5. Infection: Both prions and viruses can infect host cells, but they do so in different ways. Prions induce normal proteins in the host to adopt the abnormal misfolded shape, while viruses invade host cells and use their cellular machinery to replicate.
6. Transmission: Prions can be transmitted through the consumption of infected tissue or contact with contaminated materials, while viruses are typically transmitted through various means, including respiratory droplets, bodily fluids, or vectors like mosquitoes.
7. Immune Response: Both prions and viruses can trigger immune responses in the host. However, viruses are more likely to provoke a robust immune response due to their unique genetic material and ability to rapidly replicate.
It's worth noting that prions and viruses differ in many aspects, such as their structures, modes of replication, and the diseases they cause, but the similarities mentioned above highlight some common features between them.
The basic difference is their components.
Viruses contain both nucleic acids (DNA or RNA) and a protein coat. Viruses cause infection by inserting their genetic material in a host cell. The host cell then replicates and reads the genetic material, making new viruses that eventually burst out of the cell and leave to infect more. The reason viruses cause disease is that the infected cells cannot carry out the normal functions necessary because its machinery is being used by the virus, and eventually the cell dies.
Viroids have no protein coat, but are only the nucleic acid (RNA). Because of this, they are often carried around inside viruses. For example, Hepatitis D is a viroid that is carried in the capsid of the Hepatitis B virus.
Prions are only proteins without the nucleic acid. They generally have their effect by causing an infected individual's DNA to start producing an altered form of a protein that they would normally produce. This altered form cannot be broken down by your cells and it therefore accumulates, eventually causing cell death as it needs more and more space.