prion

See also: Prion and príon

English

Etymology 1

From (a reordering of) the initial letters of proteinaceous infectious particle. Coined by American neurologist Stanley B. Prusiner in 1982.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɹiːɒn/, /ˈpɹaɪən/; for more information, see prion § Etymology and pronunciation.

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (Southern England):

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Noun

prion (plural prions)

1. (molecular biology) A self-propagating misfolded conformer of a protein that is responsible for a number of diseases that affect the brain and other neural tissue.
   • 1999, Matt Ridley, Genome, Harper Perennial 2004, p. 277:

     Prions retain deep mysteries, the foremost of which is what on earth they exist for.

   • 2021 July 28, Barbara Casassus, “France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes two lab workers”, in Science‎^[1]:

     Five public research institutions in France have imposed a 3-month moratorium on the study of prions—a class of misfolding, infectious proteins that cause fatal brain diseases—after a retired lab worker who handled prions in the past was diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), the most common prion disease in humans.

Derived terms

• prion disease

See also

• bovine spongiform encephalopathy
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
• kuru
• mad cow disease
• New Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
• scrapie
• viroid

Translations

misfolded protein

• Azerbaijani: prion
• Bengali: প্রিয়ন (priẏon)
• Catalan: prió m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 朊病毒 (zh) (ruǎnbìngdú), 朊毒體／朊毒体 (ruǎndútǐ), 朊毒体 (ruǎndútǐ), 普利昂 (pǔlì'áng), 蛋白質侵染因子／蛋白质侵染因子, 蛋白质侵染因子 (dànbáizhì qīnrǎn yīnzǐ), 毒朊 (dúruǎn), 感染性蛋白質／感染性蛋白质, 感染性蛋白质 (gǎnrǎnxìng dànbáizhì), 普恩蛋白 (pǔēndànbái)

• Esperanto: priono
• Finnish: prioni (fi)
• French: prion (fr) m
• German: Prion (de) m
• Greek: πρίον n (príon)
• Hebrew: פריאון (he) m (prión)
• Indonesian: prion
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: prione (it) m
• Japanese: プリオン (purion)
• Korean: 프리온 (peurion)
• Malay: prion
• Malayalam: പ്രിയോൺ (priyōṇ)
• Oriya: ପ୍ରିଅନ୍ (prian)
• Persian: پریون (fa)
• Portuguese: prião m (Portugal), príon m (Brazil)
• Russian: прио́н (ru) m (prión)
• Spanish: prion (es) m
• Tamil: புரதப்பீழை (puratappīḻai)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: пріо́н m (prión)

Etymology 2

From Prion (former genus name), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek πρίων (príōn, “saw”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɹʌɪən/

Noun

prion (plural prions)

1. A petrel of the genus Pachyptila.

Synonyms

• (petrel of the genus Pachyptila): pachyptile (rare)

Translations

petrel from the genus Pachyptila

• Bulgarian: вълнолюбка f (vǎlnoljubka)
• Finnish: prioni (fi)
• Russian: китовая пти́чка f (kitovaja ptíčka)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Spanish: pato-petrel m

Anagrams

• Ripon, orpin, ponir, porin, proin, rip on, ripon

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French

Noun

prion m (plural prions)

1. prion

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Spanish

Alternative forms

• prión

Noun

prion m (plural priones)

1. prion

Further reading

• “prion”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014