Banned Medical Procedure Transmits Alzheimers

0
alzhiemer's
cropped view of senior man playing with puzzles

According to a new study, five patients with Alzheimer’s disease developed a disorder after a surgery performed decades ago. While the treatment involved is no longer in use, the findings may provide crucial insights into how the disease proceeds. In addition, this mark the first evidence of Alzheimer’s being transmitted to living people in this manner.

This most recent study focuses on eight people who did not develop CJD after receiving c-hGH therapy. Five of them began exhibiting symptoms associated with Alzheimer’s-related dementia between the ages of 38 and 55. They developed and worsened over time. The remaining three showed no symptoms at all. However, one had some modest cognitive problems. One met the criteria for mild cognitive impairment, which can occasionally progress to dementia.

Because the Alzheimer’s patients were so young. When the symptoms started, it was doubtful that they had the typical form of the illness that develops in old age. However, the five patients were able to offer samples for genetic testing. It allowed the investigators to rule out the rarer inherited form of Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s Like Disease

That left the scientists with only one plausible conclusion: amyloid-beta proteins were conveyed to the patients during their c-hGH treatment as youngsters, resulting in Alzheimer ‘s-like brain disease in midlife.

Previous research with animal models serves as a foundation for this idea, which the team has been building since 2015. In 2018, a mouse study demonstrated that amyloid-beta can operate like a prion, causing the formation of toxic protein deposits in the brain after injection.

All of this, however, does not imply that Alzheimer’s disease is contagious.

Seth Love explained,

The transmission probably requires direct contact with the brain or the presence of circulating pathogenic forms of the proteins in the bloodstream

Lead author John Collinge further added,

There is no suggestion whatsoever that Alzheimer’s disease can be transmitted between individuals during activities of daily life or routine medical care. The patients we have described were given a specific and long-discontinued medical treatment which involved injecting patients with material now known to have been contaminated with disease-related proteins.

What this means is that we now have more evidence than ever that Alzheimer’s disease can progress in a manner similar to CJD, at least in certain patients.

While real iatrogenic Alzheimer’s cases are likely to be extremely rare, the team believes it is critical that we reconsider medical practices that may increase the chance of transmission. Primarily, given the difficulties in treating and preventing Alzheimer’s, the findings may help scientists better understand its course and create new medicines, which will undoubtedly be welcomed.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here