1. Proteins are a chain sequence of amino acids, each link one of 20ish possibilities 2. These chains need to be folded in the right way for them to work properly 3. When they shape gets messed up, usually it just stops working (like when you fry an egg)
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viruses don't want anything! they're not even alive in the conventional sense Just very complex particles that happen to be very good at reproducing Another example of this: does caffeine /want/ to reproduce? Probably not, but it's hijacked humans to do so anyway :)
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Ok my idea didn't bear fruit, but one other interesting thing Your body is full of proteins called proteases, which just go around chopping up other proteins (this is normal and good) Prions might be controlled by protease degradation, except they also . . .
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turn into relatively tight balls when misfolded, which gives them an advantage against proteases
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