Talk:Kuru (disease)

message: I'm not sure if this is the right place to put my question, but I'm doing a research project on the Kuru disease and I'd like to know what exactly prions do that cause the brain to get "spongy".
Now, from reading the Prion article in Wikipedia, I get that the PrP^Sc protein contains a lot more of the amino acid structure called "beta sheets" than the normal PrP^C proteins. Now assuming that HuPrP^Sc kuru protein is somewhat related to the PrP^Sc protein, these "beta sheets" allow the proteins to form insoluble fibrils called amyloid aggregations. How do these fibres cause problems? I'm only a grade 10 student, so I'd like a somewhat simplified answer so that I can understand what you are saying without having to research every word I don't understand. :)
I'd also like to know what exactly amyloid aggregations are. From what I can understand so far, they are structures formed by the prions that cause a heck of a lot of problems. Would I be correct? The article on amyloids in Wikipedia tells me that they are responsible for many neurodegenerative diseases, but it doesn't tell me how the amyloid aggregations cause the problems. Doing some more research on Wikipedia, I found that amyloid aggregations cause problems in people with Alzheimers by braking down blood vessels. Does the same sort of thing happen in Kuru?
I would really appreciate your help.
— Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.84.35.186  (talk • contribs) 16:01, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Proteins have four levels (primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary) of structure. The two most important characteristics of secondary protein structure are alpha-helixes and beta-pleated sheets. A prion is a protein that is somehow misformed (I'm not sure if this malformation has anything to do with beta-pleated sheets or not), and this misformation makes the protein nonfunctional. Through a still unclear mechanism, prions can transmit their structural mistakes to normally structured proteins. The malformation spreads through the proteins of a normal brain after the prions are ingested, and more and more proteins become converted to prions and become nonfunctional. Proteins that don't work will obviously impede cellular functions and cause cell death, destroying brain tissue and creating a "spongy" texture.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.192.82.87 (talk) 07:22, 9 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I de-jargoned Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy#Features to help clarify for future readers. -- Beland (talk) 01:12, 11 March 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Kuru and prions 

message: I am not sure what the author meant to write at the beginning of paragraph three of the 'History' section, but it is clearly mis-typed in some way. Can anyone correct it? -
"It was not by the time that the Kuru disease had spread into an epidemic when Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, a virologist, and Vincent Zigas, a medical doctor, first started doing research on the disease in 1957."
Suspicion falls immediately upon the word 'not' towards the beginning...
KurtHLarson (talk) 08:50, 2 January 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: This has since been fixed. -- Beland (talk) 01:05, 11 March 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Unclear sentence - Typo? 

message: Two sources say the final Kuru patient died in 2005, while two other sources say 2009. Rather than just delete one of the two claims (since the 2009 date cites later sources, it's more tempting as a likely correct date, but one of those two sources is Esquire of all things, so...), I acknowledged sources disagree rather than let two different claims stand in the article. If someone with medical journal access and more specific expertise in this field than I possess can clear it up, that'd be great. Grandpallama (talk) 20:38, 31 August 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Last patient 

message: I checked the reference for:
"Because the brain is the organ enriched in the infectious agent prion, women and children, who consumed brain and viscera, had much higher likelihood of being infected than men, who preferentially consumed muscles.[14]" [MY BOLD]
I can't see anything there about men preferring to consume muscles.
Bill Schutt in Eat Me (p191 - 192) reports Whitfield as suggesting that pretty much only women and children ate from the deceased corpse, eating all of it, with the genitals and intestines reserved for the widow.
:I found a reference which clarifies that adult men don't participate in the cannibalistic funeral ritual. They tend to get more desirable pig meat. -- Beland (talk) 01:05, 11 March 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Transmission to men and women - or women and children only? 

message: In the history section there was a phrase stating the Fore people attempted to feed the infected pork and casuarina bark to cure kuru. I added a citation for the claim of the casuarina bark, but I couldn't find any information about the pork. I even found an article claiming that "Pigs are not really plentiful," in the region. Does anyone have a source for that claim? I removed it, but if someone can find a good source, I can add it back.Herravondure (talk) 16:17, 6 May 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Homoeopathic remedies 

message: Kuru has been removed from Eradication of infectious diseases unless someone cites sources from WHO or similar it shouldn't be stated otherwise. Watch Atlas791 (talk) 01:25, 27 November 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: I edited that article to note eradication of kuru in the "under way" section, copying references from this article that note the last known patients and the long incubation period, which is perhaps why I couldn't find a declaration of eradication. -- Beland (talk) 00:29, 11 March 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Eradication status  

message: wrote in this edit summary: "I don't see why this section was removed entirely, if someone could provide a reason that'd be nice, I was just wondering."
:Hello! I removed this section because none of the items in it seem to pass the notability standard at MOS:POPCULT. -- Beland (talk) 23:37, 10 March 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Ah! Okay! Thank you! Roxxas33 (talk) 14:35, 11 March 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  In popular culture section 

message: — Assignment last updated by Mbl5581 (talk) 18:34, 4 October 2023 (UTC)
thread_title: Wiki Education assignment: Plagues and People

message: The redirect Kuru (disease has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached.  Utopes (talk / cont) 01:50, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  "[[:Kuru (disease]]" listed at [[Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion|Redirects for discussion]]