Translation of "gène protéine du prion " (French → English) :

36. Considers, bearing in mind that the number of genes seems far lower than previously thought, that much less importance should be attributed to the idea that genes are the sole or overriding contributory factor in given outcomes, which appear instead to result from complex interaction processes involving genes, proteins, and environment; once the emphasis on predictivity has been removed, the possibility of using genetic data to assess people’s prospects should not be permitted, since the decisive relationship with proteins and environment is disregarded, producing distorted or incomplete images of the ...[+++]person in question; takes the view that an individual does, however, have the right to have genetic tests carried out;

5. Calls for further research to improve screening tests, in particular by introducing more sensitive tests which would make it possible to distinguish the normal prion protein from the infectious protein;

Opinions are still divided as to whether the actual cause of the disease are prions, which have no nucleic acid and consist only of a protein substance, or whether, in addition to prions, there is also a link with separate genetic information.

Recital 24 adds that, in cases where a sequence or partial sequence of a gene is used to produce a protein or part of a protein, it is necessary, in order to meet the requirement of industrial application, to specify which protein or part of a protein is produced or what function it performs: the level of description required as to the specific utility may vary from case to case, depend on the knowledge available, and vary as the use of genes for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes spreads.

We have been eating scrapie-infected sheep for over two hundred years, with no ill effect, and that is because the structure of the shape of the prion, the non-infectious protein, in the sheep, is not compatible to that in the human brain, unlike the rendered cattle or beef prion, that replaces the protein necessary in our brains.

(24) Whereas, in order to comply with the industrial application criterion it is necessary in cases where a sequence or partial sequence of a gene is used to produce a protein or part of a protein, to specify which protein or part of a protein is produced or what function it performs;