Bovine spongiform encephalopathy is a disease caused by prions in

BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) or mad cow disease is a progressive neurological disorder of cattle that results from infection by a prion. The prion is a modified form of a normal protein which changes into a pathogenic form and damages the central nervous system of cattle. Prions replicate and cause other normally folded proteins to misfolded and lead to an exponential chain reaction. Eventually, these prions aggregate into an alpha helical and beta pleated sheet which is thought to be toxic to brain cells.