OAN’s Avril Elfie
12:08 PM – Monday, January 29, 2024
A research study suggests that Alzheimer’s disease can be spread among humans through rare medical events.
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Studies have shown that the disease can be spread through medical emergencies, but researchers stress there is no evidence that the disease is spread through everyday life.
The study states that abnormal accumulation of the protein amyloid beta in the brain is associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Contamination of this protein may be associated with early dementia symptoms experienced by the patients studied.
John Collinge, lead author of the study and director of the Prion Disease Institute at University College London, spoke about the findings at a press conference.
“I would like to emphasize that these events are extremely rare and most involve medical procedures that are no longer in use,” Collinge said.
The study states that each of the five adults suffered from growth hormone deficiency as children and were given specially prepared pituitary growth hormone taken from cadavers. The pituitary gland is located at the base of the brain. It naturally produces and releases human growth hormone (HGH), which helps children grow.
According to the study, these patients were among 1,848 people in the UK who were treated with human growth hormone extracted from cadaveric pituitary glands between 1959 and 1985. At the time, human growth hormone was being used in the United States and other countries around the world as well. This treatment.
The treatment strategy was halted after cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare brain disease, were found to be linked to the use of contaminated human growth hormone taken from cadavers.
Alzheimer’s disease can be spread by repeated exposure over many years to cadaver-derived HGH treatments contaminated with amyloid beta seeds and prions associated with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, according to a recent study. Proteins known as prions have the ability to spread neurodegenerative diseases.
Researchers believe that Alzheimer’s disease is similar to symptoms known as “prion diseases,” a type of rare progressive neurodegenerative disease known to be associated with prion proteins, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. He said it could be contagious under certain circumstances. disease.
“What’s happening in Alzheimer’s disease appears to be very similar in many ways to what’s happening in human prion diseases like CJD,” Collinge said at a press conference. “This study has implications for treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.”
Dr. Richard Isaacson, who was not involved in the new study, said in an email that Alzheimer’s disease may be as contagious as prion disease, although studies he has seen so far have not been able to prove it. He said he had suspected it for a long time.
“It’s hard to say, but there must be something different about how HGH infected recipients in this study when compared to previous studies,” Isaacson said. .
The study emphasizes the importance of sterilizing and decontaminating instruments between surgeries, but since this form of human growth hormone treatment is no longer used in clinical practice, “the public has nothing to fear. No,” he continued.
The researchers wrote in their study that although there is no evidence that amyloid beta can be spread between people in everyday life, “that recognition is limited by accidental exposure to other medical and surgical procedures.” “This emphasizes the need to review measures to prevent the spread of the virus.”
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