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I’m no biomed expert. But I recall earlier discussions that amyloid plaque is basically just misfolded proteins, which are hard to differentiate from prions by any meaningful definition.

Now I have no idea what Tau proteins are, but it sounds like they’re also a type of misfolded protein. So, to those more knowledgeable, how inaccurate would to be to say Tau proteins are basically prions too?

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> misfolded proteins, which are hard to differentiate from prions

Prions differ in that they are not merely misfolded, but they also catalyze more of themselves.

I'm also not an expert, but to me the critical distinction is that prions are contagious, that is they cause other proteins to misfold. You can have misfolded proteins that don't cause cascading problems.

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