Origin of The Virino Concept
The virino was described partially to protect the central dogma of molecular biology, which was threatened by the existence of a series of degenerative neurological TSE diseases including kuru, CJD, scrapie in sheep, and BSE in cows. The central dogma states that nucleic acids act as the information carriers, and thus that DNA & RNA make proteins. Proteins alone cannot make DNA. However, studies searching for the transmission agent of scrapie and other TSEs have failed to culture bacteria, and tests attacking nucleic acids strands have little effect on the infectivity of TSE solutions. These failures largely rule out a virus as the infective agent. Experiments using electron beams designed to disrupt large molecules have been performed to investigate the size of the agent show that it is very small: much smaller than the smallest known virus.
The virino also has the benefit of explaining the traits of TSEs which resemble nucleic acids: for example, their occurrence in strains, which positively indicates that the TSE agent is information carrying, and not merely a toxin.
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