The term "slow viruses" is used to describe which of the following?

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Multiple Choice

The term "slow viruses" is used to describe which of the following?

Explanation:
“Slow viruses” refers to prions. The term arose because prion-caused diseases have extremely long incubation periods and progress slowly over time, such as scrapie in sheep or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. Prions are infectious proteins that propagate by inducing normal proteins to misfold, and they contain no nucleic acids. That combination—protein-based infectious agents with very long, gradual disease courses—sets prions apart from true viruses and from fungi. The other options describe organisms or agents that rely on genetic material (DNA or RNA) or are a completely different kingdom (fungi), so they don’t match the slow, protein-only infectious nature of prions.

“Slow viruses” refers to prions. The term arose because prion-caused diseases have extremely long incubation periods and progress slowly over time, such as scrapie in sheep or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. Prions are infectious proteins that propagate by inducing normal proteins to misfold, and they contain no nucleic acids. That combination—protein-based infectious agents with very long, gradual disease courses—sets prions apart from true viruses and from fungi. The other options describe organisms or agents that rely on genetic material (DNA or RNA) or are a completely different kingdom (fungi), so they don’t match the slow, protein-only infectious nature of prions.

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