When proteins do not fold correctly, that is when trouble occurs. Misfolding could produce a protein in completely the wrong shape. Lots of ways this can occur. A human can be missing the protein, like in cystic fibrosis. What is more prevalent is there are a whole class of diseases that were thought not to be related to one another, such as Mad Cow, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, types of cancer and ALS, that are actually related to protein misfolding. And the misassembly not only makes the molecules toxic and dangerous, but the misfolded proteins can cause other proteins to misfold and also become toxic.
