The Power of Prions: The Strange and Essential Proteins That Can Cause Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Other...

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Michel Brahic

The Power of Prions

The Strange and Essential Proteins That Can Cause Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Other Diseases...

Michel Brahic

$39.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Princeton University Press
01 March 2025

Diseases & disorders; Neurosciences

Over the last decade, scientists have discovered the importance and widespread presence in the body of a remarkable family of proteins known as prion proteins. Research links various types of prion proteins to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's

and this has fueled the search for new drugs that could halt the progression of these terrible disorders. Other discoveries have revealed the essential roles prion proteins play in memory and immunity, and

in an extraordinary finding

the part they may have played in the beginnings of life on our planet. In this engaging and accessible book, Michel Brahic tells the story of these amazing and versatile proteins.

Brahic, a leading researcher on diseases of the central nervous system, first describes the discovery of prions and their role in infection, beginning with early work on the animal disease scrapie and a mysterious human illness in New Guinea, apparently transmitted by cannibalism. Prions were eventually identified and named by Stanley Prusiner in the 1980s. (Brahic tells us Prusiner's alternate name for prion was 'piaf'.) Prion proteins were then revealed as the cause of other illnesses, from 'mad cow' disease and its human counterpart, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, to such noninfectious brain disorders as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. While the prion proteins responsible for diseases are definitively 'bad', Brahic also explains that these abnormal prions are rare exceptions. Most of the time, prion proteins actually serve 'good' and vital functions

and they may even have been present at the origin of life itself.

'Michel Brahic provides a thorough history of prion proteins that delves beyond their well-documented role in neurodegenerative diseases. A prion researcher himself, Brahic expertly details the origins of his field.'

Francisco J. Rivera-Rosario, The Transmitter

'Michel Brahic provides a close-up view of these mysterious proteins...[and] provides a clear, straightforward overview of how the nervous system and proteins function.'

Ed Cara, Gizmodo

By: Michel Brahic
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 203mm, Width: 127mm,
ISBN: 9780691252384
ISBN 10: 0691252386
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 01 March 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Michel Brahic, an expert in viral and prion infections of the brain, is Professeur Honoraire at Institut Pasteur in Paris. He has been Directeur de Recherche at CNRS and Consulting Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. His work has been published in Nature, Cell, New Scientist, and other journals.

Reviews for The Power of Prions: The Strange and Essential Proteins That Can Cause Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Other Diseases

""Michel Brahic provides a thorough history of prion proteins that delves beyond their well-documented role in neurodegenerative diseases. A prion researcher himself, Brahic expertly details the origins of his field.""---Francisco J. Rivera-Rosario, The Transmitter