In modern medicine, certain severe neurological diseases, like Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), were found to be
According to the latest additions in NCERT biology, 'prions' represent a highly unusual class of infectious agents. Unlike viruses or viroids which rely on nucleic acids, prions consist entirely of 'abnormally folded proteins' with no genetic material. When they enter a healthy brain, they induce normal proteins to misfold, leading to fatal neurodegenerative diseases like BSE (mad cow disease) in cattle and CJD in humans.
Ref: NCERT Class 11 Biology > Chapter 2: Biological Classification > 2.6 Viruses, Viroids, Prions and Lichens