unconventional virus

unconventional 'virus'

An infectious agent, formerly regarded as slow viruses, now known as prions, a small infectious particle, consisting entirely of subverted cell protein; prions cause degenerative encephalopathies in sheep and goats–scrapie, cows–bovine spongiform encephalopathy, humans–kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. See Kuru, Prions, Slow viruses.