Since Prusiner, suggested the prion hypothesis in 1982, a wealth of experiments have supported it to be true. However, the function of the cellular prion protein(PrPC) remains unclear. But recently evidence is showing that PrPC could specifically bind to Cu2+ and may transport Cu2+ to SOD1 by endocytosis from the plasma membrane via clathrin-coated pits so that taking part in copper metablism. Moreover, other evidence also shows that Cu2+ could enhance the reversibility of denatured PrPSc and may determine the difference of some PrPSc strains.
LI Ning, QIN Jun-Chuan. Prion and Cu2+[J]. Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics,2001,28(5):615-618
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