A small item that may be the infective agent of a TSE. It contains protein and nucleic acid.
Alternative hypothesis to explain TSEs. Proposed to contain protein and nucleic acid, but distinct from conventional viruses.
The virino was a hypothetical infectious particle theorized to be the cause of scrapie and other degenerative diseases of the central nervous system; it was thought to consist of nucleic acid in a protective coat of host cell proteins. It has now been discarded in favor of the prion as the cause of infection.