system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How exactly do prion diseases work and how can they be prevented?

Also, how close are we to a cure?
gpt
A prion is a mis-folded normal protein that acts as a template/model/catalyst to cause other, previously normal shaped proteins to adopt a mis-folded configuration. This occurs entirely on the protein level, no DNA or RNA are involved. The only way to prevent it, which works very well, is to prevent contact between the diseased tissue in sick animals with normal tissue in healthy animals. This is a far more rational approach than treatment would be.