Family Prions - Subviral Agents of Spongiform Encephalopathies


Compiled for the VIth ICTV Report by Prusiner SB, Baldwin M, Collinge J, DeArmond SJ, Marsh R, Tateishi J, Weissmann C


Taxonomic Structure of the Family
ICTVdB - Description of the Family

References cited in the VIth ICTV Report

Aiken JM, Marsh FR (1990) The search for scrapie agent nucleic acid. Microbiol Rev 54: 242-246

Brown P, Goldfarb LG, Gajdusek DC (1991) The new biology of spongiform encephalopathy: infectious amyloidoses with a genetic twist. Lancet 337: 1019-1022

Carp RI, Kascsak RJ, Wisniewski HM, Mertz PA, Rubenstein R, Bendheim P,Bolton D (1989) The nature of the unconventional slow infection agents remains a puzzle. Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord 3: 79-99

Dickinson AG, Outram GW (1988) Genetic aspects of unconventional virus infections: the basis of the virino hypothesis. In: Bock G, Marsh J (eds), Novel Infectious Agents and the Central Nervous System. Ciba Foundation Symposium 135. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, UK, pp 63-83

Gabizon R, Prusiner SB (1990) Prion liposomes. Biochem J 266: 1-14

Gajdusek DC (1977) Unconventional viruses and the origin and disappearance of kuru. Science 197: 943-960

Gibbs CJ Jr, Gajdusek DC (1978) Subacute spongiform virus encephalopathies: the transmissible virus dementias. In: Katzman R, Terry RD, Bick KL (eds) Alzheimer's Disease: Senile Dementia and Related Disorders, Aging, Vol 7, Raven Press, New York USA, pp 559-577

Prusiner SB (1991) Molecular biology of prion diseases. Science 252: 1515-1522 Prusiner SB, Collinge J, Powell J, Anderton B (eds) (1993) Prion Diseases of Humans and Animals. Ellis Horwood, London UK (in press)

Rohwer RG (1991) The scrapie agent: "a virus by any other name". Curr Top Microbiol Immunol 172: 195-232

Weissmann C (1991) A "unified theory" of prion propagation. Nature 352: 679-683


Index of Viruses
links to lists containing the ICTV Classification and Nomencalture of Viruses

Virus databases on-line
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Author: C. Büchen-Osmond Created May, 95 Last updated: 28 June, 1995