Transmission of amyloid-β protein pathology from cadaveric pituitary growth hormone
Silvia A. Purro1 , Mark A. Farrow1 , Jacqueline Linehan1 , Tamsin Nazari1 , David X. Thomas1 , Zhicheng Chen2 , David Mengel2 , Takashi Saito3, Takaomi Saido3, Peter Rudge1 , Sebastian Brandner1,4, Dominic M. Walsh1,2 & John Collinge1 *
We previously reported1 the presence of amyloid-β protein (Aβ) deposits in individuals with Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) who had been treated during childhood with human cadaveric pituitaryderived growth hormone (c-hGH) contaminated with prions. The marked deposition of parenchymal and vascular Aβ in these relatively young individuals with treatment-induced (iatrogenic) CJD (iCJD), in contrast to other prion-disease patients and population controls, allied with the ability of Alzheimer’s disease brain homogenates to seed Aβ deposition in laboratory animals, led us to argue that the implicated c-hGH batches might have been contaminated with Aβ seeds as well as with prions. However, this was necessarily an association, and not an experimental, study in humans and causality could not be concluded. Given the public health importance of our hypothesis, we proceeded to identify and biochemically analyse archived vials of c-hGH. Here we show that certain c-hGH batches to which patients with iCJD and Aβ pathology were exposed have substantial levels of Aβ40, Aβ42 and tau proteins, and that this material can seed the formation of Aβ plaques and cerebral Aβ−amyloid angiopathy in intracerebrally inoculated mice expressing a mutant, humanized amyloid precursor protein. These results confirm the presence of Aβ seeds in archived c-hGH vials and are consistent with the hypothesized iatrogenic human transmission of Aβ pathology. This experimental confirmation has implications for both the prevention and the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, and should prompt a review of the risk of iatrogenic transmission of Aβ seeds by medical and surgical procedures long recognized to pose a risk of accidental prion transmission2,3.
After the publication of our original report suggesting human transmission of Aβ via c-hGH therapy1 —which raised the possibility that it can also be transmitted by other routes known to be a risk for the transmission of CJD prions—there have been several published reports of Aβ deposition in young individuals following neurosurgical procedures (notably involving dura mater grafting), as well as following c-hGH inoculation23–28. Although we reiterate that there is no suggestion that Alzheimer’s disease is contagious, and no supportive evidence from epidemiological studies that it is transmissible (notably by blood transfusion29,30), we consider it important to evaluate the risks of iatrogenic transmission of CAA, and potentially of Alzheimer’s disease. Given the lack of disease-modifying therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease and other distressing and fatal neurodegenerative conditions, it will be important to consider introducing improved methods for removing proteopathic seeds from surgical instruments on a precautionary basis.
Online content
Any methods, additional references, Nature Research reporting summaries, source data, statements of data availability and associated accession codes are available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0790-y
Received: 16 August 2018; Accepted: 31 October 2018; Published online 13 December 2018
Subject: despite overwhelming evidence, “there is no evidence that Alzheimer’s disease is contagious”
An Alzheimer’s protein found in contaminated vials of human growth hormone can spread in the brains of mice. That finding, published online December 13 in Nature, adds heft to the idea that, in very rare cases, amyloid-beta can travel from one person’s brain to another’s.
Decades ago, over a thousand young people in the United Kingdom received injections of growth hormone derived from cadavers’ brains as treatment for growth deficiencies. Four of these people died with unusually high levels of A-beta in their brains, a sign of Alzheimer’s disease (SN: 10/17/15, p. 12). The results hinted that A-beta may have been delivered along with the growth hormone.
Now researchers have confirmed not only that A-beta was in some of those old vials, but also that it can spark A-beta accumulation in mice’s brains. Neurologist John Collinge of University College London and colleagues found that brain injections of the contaminated growth hormone led to clumps of A-beta in the brains of mice genetically engineered to produce the protein, while brain injections with synthetic growth hormone did not.
The results suggest that A-beta can “seed” the protein in people’s brains, under the right circumstances. Still, that doesn’t mean that Alzheimer’s disease is transmissible in day-to-day life.
“There is no evidence that Alzheimer’s disease is contagious,” says neurologist and neuroscientist David Holtzman of Washington University in St. Louis, who cowrote an accompanying editorial in Nature. The four people who showed signs of A-beta accumulation “were injected repeatedly either in the muscle or intravenously with material that came from human brains,” he says. “This is not a practice done anymore.”
[[weird, that is not at all what Holtzman wrote in his comment piece:
"it is worth noting that the stored vials of c-hGH had been maintained at ambient temperature since the mid-1980s. Their ability to transmit Aβ pathology seen in this study corroborates the idea that Aβ seeds are remarkably stable9. This property of Aβ seeds emphasizes the importance of not using biological material prepared from the human central nervous system for injection or transplantation into patients during neurosurgical or medical procedures, unless these materials are adequately screened or there is no other option. Similarly, it is crucial that surgical instruments that come into contact with the human brain are appropriately treated to remove seeds of misfolded forms of peptides and proteins such as Aβ, tau or prion protein.
main article:
"Given the public health importance of our hypothesis, we proceeded to identify and biochemically analyse archived vials of c-hGH. Here we show that certain c-hGH batches to which patients with iCJD and Aβ pathology were exposed have substantial levels of Aβ40, Aβ42 and tau proteins, and that this material can seed the formation of Aβ plaques and cerebral Aβ−amyloid angiopathy in intracerebrally inoculated mice expressing a mutant, humanized amyloid precursor protein. These results confirm the presence of Aβ seeds in archived c-hGH vials and are consistent with the hypothesized iatrogenic human transmission of Aβ pathology. This experimental confirmation has implications for both the prevention and the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, and should prompt a review of the risk of iatrogenic transmission of Aβ seeds by medical and surgical procedures long recognized to pose a risk of accidental prion transmission"
S.A. Purro et al. Transmission of amyloid-ß protein pathology from cadaveric pituitary growth hormone. Nature. Published online December 13, 2018. doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0790-y.
T.-P. V. Huynh and D.M. Holtzman. Amyloid-ß ‘seeds’ in old growth-hormone vials. Nature. Published online December 13, 2018. doi:10.1038/d41586-018-07604-6.
L. Sanders. Misfolded proteins implicated in more brain diseases. Science News. Vol. 188, October 17, 2015, p. 12.
[[tsk-tsk, collinge should know by now that legal implications mean this should not be investigated any further as proof only hands a smoking gun to irate families of “sporadic” AD victims. Plus what about all the ‘worried well’ who had neurosurgery long ago??? mustn’t alarm them.]]
Collinge says he applied unsuccessfully for a grant to develop decontamination techniques for surgical instruments after his 2015 paper came out. “We raised an important public-health question, and it is frustrating that it has not yet been addressed.”
13 DECEMBER 2018 • CLARIFICATION 14 DECEMBER 2018
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07735-w
‘Transmissible’ Alzheimer’s theory gains traction Mouse tests confirm that sticky proteins associated with degenerative brain diseases can be transferred — but researchers say risks for humans are likely to be minimal. Alison Abbott
A normal brain of a 70-year-old (left slice), compared with the brain of a 70-year-old with Alzheimer’s disease.Credit: Jessica Wilson/Science Photo Library Neuroscientists have amassed more evidence for the hypothesis that sticky proteins that are a hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases can be transferred between people under particular conditions — and cause new damage in a recipient’s brain.
They stress that their research does not suggest that disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease are contagious, but it does raise concern that certain medical and surgical procedures pose a risk of transmitting such proteins between humans, which might lead to brain disease decades later.
The red-hot debate about transmissible Alzheimer's
“The risk may turn out to be minor — but it needs to be investigated urgently,” says John Collinge, a neurologist at University College London who led the research, which is published in Nature1 on 13 December.
The work follows up on a provocative study published by Collinge’s team in 20152. The researchers discovered extensive deposits of a protein called amyloid-beta during post-mortem studies of the brains of four people in the United Kingdom. They had been treated for short stature during childhood with growth-hormone preparations derived from the pituitary glands of thousands of donors after death.
The recipients had died in middle-age of a rare but deadly neurodegenerative condition called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), caused by the presence in some of the growth-hormone preparations of an infectious, misfolded protein — or prion — that causes CJD. But pathologists hadn’t expected to see the amyloid build up at such an early age. Collinge and his colleagues suggested that small amounts of amyloid-beta had also been transferred from the growth-hormone samples, and had caused, or ‘seeded’, the characteristic amyloid plaques.
Amyloid plaques in blood vessels in the brain are a hallmark of a disease called cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) and they cause local bleeding. In Alzheimer’s disease, however, amyloid plaques are usually accompanied by another protein called tau — and the researchers worry that this might also be transmitted in the same way. But this was not the case in the brains of the four affected CJD patients, which instead had the hallmarks of CAA.
The team has now more directly tested the hypothesis that these proteins could be transmitted between humans through contaminated biological preparations. Britain stopped the cadaver-derived growth hormone treatment in 1985 and replaced it with a treatment that uses synthetic growth hormone. But Collinge’s team was able to locate old batches of the growth-hormone preparation stored as powder for decades at room temperature in laboratories at Porton Down, a national public-health research complex in southern England.
When the researchers analysed the samples, their suspicions were confirmed: they found that some of the batches contained substantial levels of amyloid-beta and tau proteins.
To test whether the amyloid-beta in these batches could cause the amyloid pathology, they injected samples directly into the brains of young mice genetically engineered to be susceptible to amyloid pathology. By mid-life, the mice had developed extensive amyloid plaques and CAA. Control mice that received either no treatment or treatment with synthetic growth hormone didn’t have amyloid build up.
The scientists are now checking in separate mouse experiments whether the same is true for the tau protein.
“It’s an important study, though the results are very expected,” says Mathias Jucker at the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research in Tubingen, Germany. Jucker demonstrated in 2006 that amyloid-beta extracted from human brain could initiate CAA and plaques in the brains of mice3. Many other mouse studies have also since confirmed this.
Surgical implications
That the transmissibility of the amyloid-beta could be preserved after so many decades underlines the need for caution, says Jucker. The sticky amyloid clings tightly to materials used in surgical instruments, resisting standard decontamination methods4. But Jucker also notes that, because degenerative diseases take a long time to develop, the danger of any transfer may be most relevant in the case of childhood surgery where instruments have also been used on old people.
So far, epidemiologists have not been able to assess whether a history of surgery increases the risk of developing a neurodegenerative disease in later life — because medical databases tend not to include this type of data.
But epidemiologist Roy Anderson at Imperial College London says researchers are taking the possibility seriously. Major population cohort studies, such as the US Framingham Heart Study, are starting to collect information about participants’ past surgical procedures, along with other medical data.
More evidence emerges for 'transmissible Alzheimer's' theory
The 2015 revelation prompted pathologists around the world to reexamine their own cases of peoplewho had been treated with similar growth-hormone preparations — as well as people who had acquired CJD after brain surgery that had involved the use of contaminated donor brain membranes as repair patches. Many of the archived brain specimens, they discovered, were full of aberrant amyloid plaques5,6,7. One study showed that some batches of growth-hormone preparation used in France in the 1970s and 1980s were contaminated with amyloid-beta and tau — and that tau was also present in three of their 24 patients.8
Collinge says he applied unsuccessfully for a grant to develop decontamination techniques for surgical instruments after his 2015 paper came out. “We raised an important public-health question, and it is frustrating that it has not yet been addressed.” But he notes that an actual risk from neurosurgery has not yet been established.
• 1. Purro, S. A. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0790-y (2018). • • Article • Google Scholar
• 2. Jaunmuktane, Z. et al. Nature 525, 247–250 (2015). • • PubMed • Article • Google Scholar
• 3. Meyer-Luehmann, M. et al. Science 313, 1781-1784 (2006). • • PubMed • Article • Google Scholar
• 4. Eisele, Y.S. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 12926–12931 (2009). • • PubMed • Article • Google Scholar
• 5. Frontezek, K., Lutz, M. I., Aguzzi, A., Kovacs, G. G. & Budka, H. Swiss Med. Wkly 146, w14287 (2016). • • PubMed • Google Scholar
• 6. Hamaguchi, T. et al. Acta Neuropathol. 132, 313–315 (2016). • • PubMed • Article • Google Scholar
• 7. Cali, I. et al. Acta Neuropath. Commun. 6, 5 (2018). • • PubMed • Article • Google Scholar
• 8. Duyckaerts, C. et al. Acta Neuropath. 135, 201-212 (2018). • • PubMed • Article • Google Scholar
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RELATED ARTICLES
• Autopsies reveal signs of Alzheimer’s in growth-hormone patients
• Is ‘friendly fire’ in the brain provoking Alzheimer’s disease?
• More evidence emerges for 'transmissible Alzheimer's' theory
• The red-hot debate about transmissible Alzheimer's
SUBJECTS
• Brain
• Diseases
• Neurodegeneration
=====end...TSS=====
see full Singeltary Nature comment here;
re-Evidence for human transmission of amyloid-? pathology and cerebral amyloid angiopathy Nature 525, 247?250 (10 September 2015) doi:10.1038/nature15369 Received 26 April 2015 Accepted 14 August 2015 Published online 09 September 2015 Updated online 11 September 2015 Erratum (October, 2015)
http://www.nature.com/
I would kindly like to comment on the Nature Paper, the Lancet reply, and the newspaper articles.
First, I applaud Nature, the Scientist and Authors of the Nature paper, for bringing this important finding to the attention of the public domain, and the media for printing said findings.
Secondly, it seems once again, politics is getting in the way possibly of more important Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy TSE Prion scientific findings. findings that could have great implications for human health, and great implications for the medical surgical arena. but apparently, the government peer review process, of the peer review science, tries to intervene again to water down said disturbing findings.
where have we all heard this before? it's been well documented via the BSE Inquiry. have they not learned a lesson from the last time?
we have seen this time and time again in England (and other Country's) with the BSE mad cow TSE Prion debacle.
That 'anonymous' Lancet editorial was disgraceful. The editor, Dick Horton is not a scientist.
The pituitary cadavers were very likely elderly and among them some were on their way to CJD or Alzheimer's. Not a bit unusual. Then the recipients, who got pooled extracts injected from thousands of cadavers, were 100% certain to have been injected with both seeds. No surprise that they got both diseases going after thirty year incubations.
That the UK has a "system in place to assist science journalists" to squash embargoed science reports they find 'alarming' is pathetic.
Sounds like the journalists had it right in the first place: 'Alzheimer's may be a transmissible infection' in The Independent to 'You can catch Alzheimer's' in The Daily Mirror or 'Alzheimer's bombshell' in The Daily Express
if not for the journalist, the layperson would not know about these important findings.
where would we be today with sound science, from where we were 30 years ago, if not for the cloak of secrecy and save the industry at all cost mentality?
when you have a peer review system for science, from which a government constantly circumvents, then you have a problem with science, and humans die.
to date, as far as documented body bag count, with all TSE prion named to date, that count is still relatively low (one was too many in my case, Mom hvCJD), however that changes drastically once the TSE Prion link is made with Alzheimer's, the price of poker goes up drastically.
so, who makes that final decision, and how many more decades do we have to wait?
the iatrogenic mode of transmission of TSE prion, the many routes there from, load factor, threshold from said load factor to sub-clinical disease, to clinical disease, to death, much time is there to spread a TSE Prion to anywhere, but whom, by whom, and when, do we make that final decision to do something about it globally? how many documented body bags does it take? how many more decades do we wait? how many names can we make up for one disease, TSE prion?
Professor Collinge et al, and others, have had troubles in the past with the Government meddling in scientific findings, that might in some way involve industry, never mind human and or animal health.
FOR any government to continue to circumvent science for monetary gain, fear factor, or any reason, shame, shame on you.
in my opinion, it's one of the reasons we are at where we are at to date, with regards to the TSE Prion disease science i.e. money, industry, politics, then comes science, in that order.
greed, corporate, lobbyist there from, and government, must be removed from the peer review process of sound science, it's bad enough having them in the pharmaceutical aspect of healthcare policy making, in my opinion.
my mother died from confirmed hvCJD, and her brother (my uncle) Alzheimer's of some type (no autopsy?). just made a promise, never forget, and never let them forget, before I do.
I kindly wish to remind the public of the past, and a possible future we all hopes never happens again. ...
Plos Singeltary Alzheimer's
>>> The only tenable public line will be that "more research is required’’ <<<
>>> possibility on a transmissible prion remains open<<<
O.K., so it’s about 23 years later, so somebody please tell me, when is "more research is required’’ enough time for evaluation ?
Re-Evidence for human transmission of amyloid-β pathology and cerebral amyloid angiopathy
Nature 525, 247?250 (10 September 2015) doi:10.1038/nature15369 Received 26 April 2015 Accepted 14 August 2015 Published online 09 September 2015 Updated online 11 September 2015 Erratum (October, 2015)
snip...see full Singeltary Nature comment here;
Alzheimer's disease
let's not forget the elephant in the room. curing Alzheimer's would be a great and wonderful thing, but for starters, why not start with the obvious, lets prove the cause or causes, and then start to stop that. think iatrogenic, friendly fire, or the pass it forward mode of transmission. think medical, surgical, dental, tissue, blood, related transmission. think transmissible spongiform encephalopathy aka tse prion disease aka mad cow type disease...
Commentary: Evidence for human transmission of amyloid-β pathology and cerebral amyloid angiopathy
Alzheimer’s disease and Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy prion disease, Iatrogenic, what if ?
Posted by flounder on 05 Nov 2014 at 21:27 GMT
Alzheimer’s disease and Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy prion disease, Iatrogenic, what if ?
Background
Alzheimer’s disease and Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy disease have both been around a long time, and was discovered in or around the same time frame, early 1900’s. Both diseases are incurable and debilitating brain disease, that are in the end, 100% fatal, with the incubation/clinical period of the Alzheimer’s disease being longer (most of the time) than the TSE prion disease. Symptoms are very similar, and pathology is very similar.
Methods
Through years of research, as a layperson, of peer review journals, transmission studies, and observations of loved ones and friends that have died from both Alzheimer’s and the TSE prion disease i.e. Heidenhain Variant Creutzfelt Jakob Disease CJD.
Results
I propose that Alzheimer’s is a TSE disease of low dose, slow, and long incubation disease, and that Alzheimer’s is Transmissible, and is a threat to the public via the many Iatrogenic routes and sources. It was said long ago that the only thing that disputes this, is Alzheimer’s disease transmissibility, or the lack of. The likelihood of many victims of Alzheimer’s disease from the many different Iatrogenic routes and modes of transmission as with the TSE prion disease.
Conclusions
There should be a Global Congressional Science round table event set up immediately to address these concerns from the many potential routes and sources of the TSE prion disease, including Alzheimer’s disease, and a emergency global doctrine put into effect to help combat the spread of Alzheimer’s disease via the medical, surgical, dental, tissue, and blood arena’s. All human and animal TSE prion disease, including Alzheimer’s should be made reportable in every state, and Internationally, WITH NO age restrictions. Until a proven method of decontamination and autoclaving is proven, and put forth in use universally, in all hospitals and medical, surgical arena’s, or the TSE prion agent will continue to spread. IF we wait until science and corporate politicians wait until politics lets science _prove_ this once and for all, and set forth regulations there from, we will all be exposed to the TSE Prion agents, if that has not happened already.
end...tss
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1982;396:131-43.
Alzheimer's disease and transmissible virus dementia (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease).
Brown P, Salazar AM, Gibbs CJ Jr, Gajdusek DC.
Abstract
Ample justification exists on clinical, pathologic, and biologic grounds for considering a similar pathogenesis for AD and the spongiform virus encephalopathies. However, the crux of the comparison rests squarely on results of attempts to transmit AD to experimental animals, and these results have not as yet validated a common etiology. Investigations of the biologic similarities between AD and the spongiform virus encephalopathies proceed in several laboratories, and our own observation of inoculated animals will be continued in the hope that incubation periods for AD may be even longer than those of CJD.
http://onlinelibrary.wile...
CJD1/9 0185 Ref: 1M51A
IN STRICT CONFIDENCE
Dr McGovern From: Dr A Wight Date: 5 January 1993 Copies: Dr Metters Dr Skinner Dr Pickles Dr Morris Mr Murray
TRANSMISSION OF ALZHEIMER-TYPE PLAQUES TO PRIMATES
1. CMO will wish to be aware that a meeting was held at DH yesterday, 4 January, to discuss the above findings. It was chaired by Professor Murray (Chairman of the MRC Co-ordinating Committee on Research in the Spongiform Encephalopathies in Man), and attended by relevant experts in the fields of Neurology, Neuropathology, molecular biology, amyloid biochemistry, and the spongiform encephalopathies, and by representatives of the MRC and AFRC. 2. Briefly, the meeting agreed that:
i) Dr Ridley et als findings of experimental induction of p amyloid in primates were valid, interesting and a significant advance in the understanding of neurodegenerative disorders;
ii) there were no immediate implications for the public health, and no further safeguards were thought to be necessary at present; and
iii) additional research was desirable, both epidemiological and at the molecular level. Possible avenues are being followed up by DH and the MRC, but the details will require further discussion. 93/01.05/4.1
http://collections.europa...
BSE101/1 0136
IN CONFIDENCE
5 NOV 1992 CMO From: Dr J S Metters DCMO 4 November 1992
TRANSMISSION OF ALZHEIMER TYPE PLAQUES TO PRIMATES
1. Thank you for showing me Diana Dunstan's letter. I am glad that MRC have recognized the public sensitivity of these findings and intend to report them in their proper context. This hopefully will avoid misunderstanding and possible distortion by the media to portray the results as having more greater significance than the findings so far justify.
2. Using a highly unusual route of transmission (intra-cerebral injection) the researchers have demonstrated the transmission of a pathological process from two cases one of severe Alzheimer's disease the other of Gerstmann-Straussler disease to marmosets. However they have not demonstrated the transmission of either clinical condition as the "animals were behaving normally when killed'. As the report emphasizes the unanswered question is whether the disease condition would have revealed itself if the marmosets had lived longer. They are planning further research to see if the conditions, as opposed to the partial pathological process, is transmissible. What are the implications for public health?
3. The route of transmission is very specific and in the natural state of things highly unusual. However it could be argued that the results reveal a potential risk, in that brain tissue from these two patients has been shown to transmit a pathological process. Should therefore brain tissue from such cases be regarded as potentially infective? Pathologists, morticians, neuro surgeons and those assisting at neuro surgical procedures and others coming into contact with "raw" human brain tissue could in theory be at risk. However, on a priori grounds given the highly specific route of transmission in these experiments that risk must be negligible if the usual precautions for handling brain tissue are observed.
92/11.4/1-1 BSE101/1 0137
4. The other dimension to consider is the public reaction. To some extent the GSS case demonstrates little more than the transmission of BSE to a pig by intra-cerebral injection. If other prion diseases can be transmitted in this way it is little surprise that some pathological findings observed in GSS were also transmissible to a marmoset. But the transmission of features of Alzheimer's pathology is a different matter, given the much greater frequency of this disease and raises the unanswered question whether some cases are the result of a transmissible prion. The only tenable public line will be that "more research is required" before that hypothesis could be evaluated. The possibility on a transmissible prion remains open. In the meantime MRC needs carefully to consider the range and sequence of studies needed to follow through from the preliminary observations in these two cases. Not a particularly comfortable message, but until we know more about the causation of Alzheimer's disease the total reassurance is not practical.
JS METTERS Room 509 Richmond House Pager No: 081-884 3344 Callsign: DOH 832 121/YdeS 92/11.4/1.2
http://collections.europa...
BSE101/1 0136
IN CONFIDENCE
CMO
From: Dr J S Metters DCMO
4 November 1992
TRANSMISSION OF ALZHEIMER TYPE PLAQUES TO PRIMATES
http://collections.europa...
CJD1/9 0185
Ref: 1M51A
IN STRICT CONFIDENCE
From: Dr. A Wight Date: 5 January 1993
Copies:
Dr Metters Dr Skinner Dr Pickles Dr Morris Mr Murray
TRANSMISSION OF ALZHEIMER-TYPE PLAQUES TO PRIMATES
http://collections.europa...
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Transmission of multiple system atrophy prions to transgenic mice
‘’Our results provide compelling evidence that α-synuclein aggregates formed in the brains of MSA patients are transmissible and, as such, are prions.’’
http://www.pnas.org/conte...
Transmission of a neurodegenerative disorder from humans to mice
The findings suggest that the α-synuclein deposits that form in the brains of patients with MSA behave like prions and are transmissible under certain circumstances, according to the authors. — N.Z.
α-Synuclein deposits in the brainstems of inoculated mice.
http://www.pnas.org/conte...
kind regards, terry
Background
Alzheimer’s disease and Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy disease have both been around a long time, and was discovered in or around the same time frame, early 1900’s. Both diseases are incurable and debilitating brain disease, that are in the end, 100% fatal, with the incubation/clinical period of the Alzheimer’s disease being longer (most of the time) than the TSE prion disease. Symptoms are very similar, and pathology is very similar.
Methods
Through years of research, as a layperson, of peer review journals, transmission studies, and observations of loved ones and friends that have died from both Alzheimer’s and the TSE prion disease i.e. Heidenhain Variant Creutzfelt Jakob Disease CJD.
Results
I propose that Alzheimer’s is a TSE disease of low dose, slow, and long incubation disease, and that Alzheimer’s is Transmissible, and is a threat to the public via the many Iatrogenic routes and sources. It was said long ago that the only thing that disputes this, is Alzheimer’s disease transmissibility, or the lack of. The likelihood of many victims of Alzheimer’s disease from the many different Iatrogenic routes and modes of transmission as with the TSE prion disease.
Conclusions
There should be a Global Congressional Science round table event set up immediately to address these concerns from the many potential routes and sources of the TSE prion disease, including Alzheimer’s disease, and a emergency global doctrine put into effect to help combat the spread of Alzheimer’s disease via the medical, surgical, dental, tissue, and blood arena’s. All human and animal TSE prion disease, including Alzheimer’s should be made reportable in every state, and Internationally, WITH NO age restrictions. Until a proven method of decontamination and autoclaving is proven, and put forth in use universally, in all hospitals and medical, surgical arena’s, or the TSE prion agent will continue to spread. IF we wait until science and corporate politicians wait until politics lets science _prove_ this once and for all, and set forth regulations there from, we will all be exposed to the TSE Prion agents, if that has not happened already.
end...tss
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1982;396:131-43.
Alzheimer's disease and transmissible virus dementia (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease).
Brown P, Salazar AM, Gibbs CJ Jr, Gajdusek DC.
Abstract
Ample justification exists on clinical, pathologic, and biologic grounds for considering a similar pathogenesis for AD and the spongiform virus encephalopathies. However, the crux of the comparison rests squarely on results of attempts to transmit AD to experimental animals, and these results have not as yet validated a common etiology. Investigations of the biologic similarities between AD and the spongiform virus encephalopathies proceed in several laboratories, and our own observation of inoculated animals will be continued in the hope that incubation periods for AD may be even longer than those of CJD.
http://onlinelibrary.wile...
CJD1/9 0185 Ref: 1M51A
IN STRICT CONFIDENCE
Dr McGovern From: Dr A Wight Date: 5 January 1993 Copies: Dr Metters Dr Skinner Dr Pickles Dr Morris Mr Murray
TRANSMISSION OF ALZHEIMER-TYPE PLAQUES TO PRIMATES
1. CMO will wish to be aware that a meeting was held at DH yesterday, 4 January, to discuss the above findings. It was chaired by Professor Murray (Chairman of the MRC Co-ordinating Committee on Research in the Spongiform Encephalopathies in Man), and attended by relevant experts in the fields of Neurology, Neuropathology, molecular biology, amyloid biochemistry, and the spongiform encephalopathies, and by representatives of the MRC and AFRC. 2. Briefly, the meeting agreed that:
i) Dr Ridley et als findings of experimental induction of p amyloid in primates were valid, interesting and a significant advance in the understanding of neurodegenerative disorders;
ii) there were no immediate implications for the public health, and no further safeguards were thought to be necessary at present; and
iii) additional research was desirable, both epidemiological and at the molecular level. Possible avenues are being followed up by DH and the MRC, but the details will require further discussion. 93/01.05/4.1
http://collections.europa...
BSE101/1 0136
IN CONFIDENCE
5 NOV 1992 CMO From: Dr J S Metters DCMO 4 November 1992
TRANSMISSION OF ALZHEIMER TYPE PLAQUES TO PRIMATES
1. Thank you for showing me Diana Dunstan's letter. I am glad that MRC have recognized the public sensitivity of these findings and intend to report them in their proper context. This hopefully will avoid misunderstanding and possible distortion by the media to portray the results as having more greater significance than the findings so far justify.
2. Using a highly unusual route of transmission (intra-cerebral injection) the researchers have demonstrated the transmission of a pathological process from two cases one of severe Alzheimer's disease the other of Gerstmann-Straussler disease to marmosets. However they have not demonstrated the transmission of either clinical condition as the "animals were behaving normally when killed'. As the report emphasizes the unanswered question is whether the disease condition would have revealed itself if the marmosets had lived longer. They are planning further research to see if the conditions, as opposed to the partial pathological process, is transmissible. What are the implications for public health?
3. The route of transmission is very specific and in the natural state of things highly unusual. However it could be argued that the results reveal a potential risk, in that brain tissue from these two patients has been shown to transmit a pathological process. Should therefore brain tissue from such cases be regarded as potentially infective? Pathologists, morticians, neuro surgeons and those assisting at neuro surgical procedures and others coming into contact with "raw" human brain tissue could in theory be at risk. However, on a priori grounds given the highly specific route of transmission in these experiments that risk must be negligible if the usual precautions for handling brain tissue are observed.
92/11.4/1-1 BSE101/1 0137
4. The other dimension to consider is the public reaction. To some extent the GSS case demonstrates little more than the transmission of BSE to a pig by intra-cerebral injection. If other prion diseases can be transmitted in this way it is little surprise that some pathological findings observed in GSS were also transmissible to a marmoset. But the transmission of features of Alzheimer's pathology is a different matter, given the much greater frequency of this disease and raises the unanswered question whether some cases are the result of a transmissible prion. The only tenable public line will be that "more research is required" before that hypothesis could be evaluated. The possibility on a transmissible prion remains open. In the meantime MRC needs carefully to consider the range and sequence of studies needed to follow through from the preliminary observations in these two cases. Not a particularly comfortable message, but until we know more about the causation of Alzheimer's disease the total reassurance is not practical.
JS METTERS Room 509 Richmond House Pager No: 081-884 3344 Callsign: DOH 832 121/YdeS 92/11.4/1.2
http://collections.europa...
BSE101/1 0136
IN CONFIDENCE
CMO
From: Dr J S Metters DCMO
4 November 1992
TRANSMISSION OF ALZHEIMER TYPE PLAQUES TO PRIMATES
http://collections.europa...
CJD1/9 0185
Ref: 1M51A
IN STRICT CONFIDENCE
From: Dr. A Wight Date: 5 January 1993
Copies:
Dr Metters Dr Skinner Dr Pickles Dr Morris Mr Murray
TRANSMISSION OF ALZHEIMER-TYPE PLAQUES TO PRIMATES
http://collections.europa...
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Transmission of multiple system atrophy prions to transgenic mice
‘’Our results provide compelling evidence that α-synuclein aggregates formed in the brains of MSA patients are transmissible and, as such, are prions.’’
http://www.pnas.org/conte...
Transmission of a neurodegenerative disorder from humans to mice
The findings suggest that the α-synuclein deposits that form in the brains of patients with MSA behave like prions and are transmissible under certain circumstances, according to the authors. — N.Z.
α-Synuclein deposits in the brainstems of inoculated mice.
http://www.pnas.org/conte...
kind regards, terry
No competing interests declared.
Self-Propagative Replication of Ab Oligomers Suggests Potential Transmissibility in Alzheimer Disease
*** Singeltary comment PLoS ***
Alzheimer’s disease and Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy prion disease, Iatrogenic, what if ?
Posted by flounder on 05 Nov 2014 at 21:27 GMT
IN CONFIDENCE
5 NOVEMBER 1992
TRANSMISSION OF ALZHEIMER TYPE PLAQUES TO PRIMATES
[9. Whilst this matter is not at the moment directly concerned with the iatrogenic CJD cases from hgH, there remains a possibility of litigation here, and this presents an added complication.
There are also results to be made available shortly
(1) concerning a farmer with CJD who had BSE animals,
(2) on the possible transmissibility of Alzheimer’s and
(3) a CMO letter on prevention of iatrogenic CJD transmission in neurosurgery, all of which will serve to increase media interest.]
P132 Aged cattle brain displays Alzheimer’s-like pathology that can be propagated in a prionlike manner
Ines Moreno-Gonzalez (1), George Edwards III (1), Rodrigo Morales (1), Claudia Duran-Aniotz (1), Mercedes Marquez (2), Marti Pumarola (2), Claudio Soto (1)
snip...
These results may contribute to uncover a previously unsuspected etiology surrounding some cases of sporadic AD. However, the early and controversial stage of the field of prion-like transmission in non-prion diseases added to the artificial nature of the animal models utilized for these studies, indicate that extrapolation of the results to humans should not be done without further experiments.
P75 Determining transmissibility and proteome changes associated with abnormal bovine prionopathy
Dudas S (1,2), Seuberlich T (3), Czub S (1,2) 1. Canadian Food Inspection Agency, NCAD Lethbridge Laboratory, Canada 2. University of Calgary, Canada 3. University of Bern, Switzerland.
In prion diseases, it is believed that altered protein conformation encodes for different pathogenic strains. Currently 3 different strains of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) are confirmed. Diagnostic tests for BSE are able to identify animals infected with all 3 strains, however, several diagnostic laboratories have reported samples with inconclusive results which are challenging to classify. It was suggested that these may be novel strains of BSE; to determine transmissibility, brain material from index cases were inoculated into cattle. In the first passage, cattle were intra-cranially challenged with brain homogenate from 2 Swiss animals with abnormal prionopathy. The challenged cattle incubated for 3 years and were euthanized with no clinical signs of neurologic disease.. Animals were negative when tested on validated diagnostic tests but several research methods demonstrated changes in the prion conformation in these cattle, including density gradient centrifugation and immunohistochemistry.. Currently, samples from the P1 animals are being tested for changes in protein levels using 2-D Fluorescence Difference Gel Electrophoresis (2D DIGE) and mass spectrometry. It is anticipated that, if a prionopathy is present, this approach should identify pathways and targets to decipher the source of altered protein conformation. In addition, a second set of cattle have been challenged with brain material from the first passage. Ideally, these cattle will be given a sufficient incubation period to provide a definitive answer to the question of transmissibility.
=====prion 2018===
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2018
Amydis Awarded Prion Disease Grant from NIH
***however in 1 C-type challenged animal, Prion 2015 Poster Abstracts
S67 PrPsc was not detected using rapid tests for BSE.
***Subsequent testing resulted in the detection of pathologic lesion in unusual brain location and PrPsc detection by PMCA only.
*** IBNC Tauopathy or TSE Prion disease, it appears, no one is sure ***
Posted by Terry S. Singeltary Sr. on 03 Jul 2015 at 16:53 GMT
Discussion: The C, L and H type BSE cases in Canada exhibit molecular characteristics similar to those described for classical and atypical BSE cases from Europe and Japan.
*** This supports the theory that the importation of BSE contaminated feedstuff is the source of C-type BSE in Canada.
*** It also suggests a similar cause or source for atypical BSE in these countries. ***
see page 176 of 201 pages...tss
http://www.neuroprion.org/resources/pdf_docs/conferences/prion2009/prion2009_bookofabstracts.pdf
*** Singeltary reply ; Molecular, Biochemical and Genetic Characteristics of BSE in Canada Singeltary reply;
2006-2007
HUMAN and ANIMAL TSE Classifications i.e. mad cow disease and the UKBSEnvCJD only theory
TSEs have been rampant in the USA for decades in many species, and they all have been rendered and fed back to animals for human/animal consumption.
I propose that the current diagnostic criteria for human TSEs only enhances and helps the spreading of human TSE from the continued belief of the UKBSEnvCJD only theory in 2007.
With all the science to date refuting it, to continue to validate this myth, will only spread this TSE agent through a multitude of potential routes and sources i.e. consumption, surgical, blood, medical, cosmetics etc.
I propose as with Aguzzi, Asante, Collinge, Caughey, Deslys, Dormont, Gibbs, Ironside, Manuelidis, Marsh, et al and many more, that the world of TSE Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy is far from an exact science, but there is enough proven science to date that this myth should be put to rest once and for all, and that we move forward with a new classification for human and animal TSE that would properly identify the infected species, the source species, and then the route.
This would further have to be broken down to strain of species and then the route of transmission would further have to be broken down.
Accumulation and Transmission are key to the threshold from subclinical to clinical disease, and of that, I even believe that physical and or blunt trauma may play a role of onset of clinical symptoms in some cases, but key to all this, is to stop the amplification and transmission of this agent, the spreading of, no matter what strain.
BUT, to continue with this myth that the U.K. strain of BSE one strain in cows, and the nv/v CJD, one strain in humans, and that all the rest of human TSE is one single strain i.e. sporadic CJD (when to date there are 6 different phenotypes of sCJD), and that no other animal TSE transmits to humans, to continue with this masquerade will only continue to spread, expose, and kill, who knows how many more in the years and decades to come.
ONE was enough for me, My Mom, hvCJD, DOD 12/14/97 confirmed, which is nothing more than another mans name added to CJD, like CJD itself, Jakob and Creutzfeldt, or Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker syndrome, just another CJD or human TSE, named after another human.
WE are only kidding ourselves with the current diagnostic criteria for human and animal TSE, especially differentiating between the nvCJD vs the sporadic CJD strains and then the GSS strains and also the FFI fatal familial insomnia strains or the ones that mimics one or the other of those TSE?
Tissue infectivity and strain typing of the many variants of the human and animal TSEs are paramount in all variants of all TSE.
There must be a proper classification that will differentiate between all these human TSE in order to do this.
With the CDI and other more sensitive testing coming about, I only hope that my proposal will some day be taken seriously.
My name is Terry S. Singeltary Sr. and I am no scientist, no doctor and have no PhDs, but have been independently researching human and animal TSEs since the death of my Mother to the Heidenhain Variant of Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease on December 14, 1997 'confirmed'.
...END
>>>Although sCJD patient skin contained ~103- to 105-fold lower prion seeding activity than did sCJD patient brain tissue, all 12 mice from two transgenic mouse lines inoculated with sCJD skin homogenates from two sCJD patients succumbed to prion disease within 564 days after inoculation<<<
for something to be 103 to 105 fold lower prion seeding, yet still be 100% fatal in all test subjects, very disturbing...terry
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2017
NIH scientists and collaborators find infectious prion protein in skin of CJD patients
TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 2017
Prion 2017 Conference
Transmissible prions in the skin of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease patients
Prion 2017 Conference Transmissible prions in the skin of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease patients
Dr. Wenguan Zou1, Dr. Christina Orru2, Jue Yuan1, Brian Appleby1, Baiya Li1, Dane Winner1, Yian Zhan1,3, Mark Rodgers1, Jason Rarick1, Robert Wyza1, Tripti Joshi1, Gongxian Wang3, Mark Cohen1, Shulin Zhang1, Bradley Groveman2, Robert Petersen1, James Ironside4, Miguel Quinones-Mateu1, Jiri Safar1, Qingzhong Kong1, Byron Caughey2
1Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, United States, 2Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, United States, 3Nanchang University, Nanchang, China, 4Universitv of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Aims: Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), the most common human prion disease, is transmissible by neuroinvasive iatrogenic routes due to abundant prion infectivity in the central nervous system (CNS). The disease-associated prion protein (PrPSc) and its infectivity have never been detected in skin from sCJD patients; however, some epidemiological studies have associated sCJD risk with skin-involved non-CNS surgeries. The aims of our study were to explore potential prion seeding activity and infectivity of skin and the feasibility of skin-based CJD diagnosis.
Methods: Skin samples were collected at autopsy or biopsy from twenty-one sCJD, two variant CJD, and fifteen non-CJD patients and analysed by Western blotting and real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT- QulC) for PrPSc. Infectivity of skin from two sCJD patients was determined by bioassay using two lines of humanized transgenic (Tg) mice.
Results: Western blotting demonstrated PrPSc in the skin of one of five deceased sCJD patients examined. However, the more sensitive RT-QuIC assay detected prion-seeding activity in skin from all 23 CJD decedents but not in non-CJD controls, indicating preliminary ClD diagnostic sensitivities and specificities of 100% (95% confidence intervals of 85-100%, and 78-100%, respectively). Although sCJD skins contained ~102-105-fold lower RT-QuIC seeding activity than sCJD brains, ten out of twelve mice from two Tg mouse lines inoculated with skin homogenates of two patients with two different subtypes of sCJD succumbed to prion disease within 450 days after inoculation.
Conclusions: sCJD patients' skin may contain both detectable prion seeding activity and transmissible prions. Our findings not only suggest a new basis for diagnostic sCJD testing, but also raise concerns about the potential for iatrogenic sCJD transmission via skin. (Funded by the CJD Foundation, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as others)
DISORDERS PRION 2017 DECIPHERING NEURODEGENERATIVE
*sCJD patients' skin may contain both detectable prion seeding activity and transmissible prions.
*Our findings not only suggest a new basis for diagnostic sCJD testing, but also raise concerns about the potential for iatrogenic sCJD transmission via skin.
Oral Session14：45～15：00O-12 Wenquan Zou
*** PrPSc in the skin of CJD patients
Accessing transmissibility and diagnostic marker of skin prions.
Kong, Qingzhong Safar, Jiri G. Zou, Wen-Quan
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, United States
Abstract The fatal, transmissible animal and human prion diseases are characterized by the deposition in the brain of a proteinase K (PK)-resistant infectious prion protein (PrPSc), an isoform derived from the cellular protein (PrPC) through misfolding. A definitive antemortem diagnosis is virtually impossible for most patients because of the difficulty in obtaining the brain tissues by biopsy. Recently, PrPSc has been reported to be detected in the skin of experimentally or naturally scrapie-infected animals (Thomzig et al., 2007). Consistent with this finding, we have observed PK-resistant PrP in the skin of a patient with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), an acquired form of human prion disease caused by bovine prion (Notari et al., 2010). Unexpectedly, our latest preliminary study identified two types of PK-resistant PrP molecules [with gel mobility similar to the PrPSc types 1 and 2 from the brain of sporadic CJD (sCJD)] in the fibroblast cells extracted from the skin of clinical sCJD patients and asymptomatic subjects carrying PrP mutations linked to familial CJD (fCJD). We also detected PrPSc in the skin of humanized transgenic (Tg) mice inoculated intracerebrally with a human prion. Moreover, prion infectivity has been observed in the skin of infected greater kudu (Cunningham et al., 2004) and a murine prion inoculated to mice via skin scarification can not only propagate in the skin, but also spread to the brain to cause prion disease (Wathne et al., 2012). We hypothesize that the skin of patients with prion disease harbors prion infectivity and the presence of PK-resistant PrP in the skin is a novel diagnostic marker for preclinical CJD patients. To test the hypotheses, we propose to (1) determine prion infectivity of the skin- derived fibroblasts and skin of sCJD patients and asymptomatic PrP-mutation carriers using humanized Tg mouse bioassay, (2) to pinpoint the earliest stage at which PrPSc becomes detectable in the skin of prion- infected Tg mice, and (3) to detect PrPSc in the skin of various human prion diseases, using conventional as well as highly sensitive RT-QuIC assays for both (2) and (3). If successful, our proposal may not only help prevent potential transmission of human prion diseases but also enable definitive and less intrusive antemortem diagnosis of prion diseases. Finally, knowledge generated from this study may also enhance our understanding of other neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.
Public Health Relevance Currently it is unclear whether or not the skin of patients with prion diseases is infectious and, moreover, there is no alternative preclinical definitive testing or the brain biopsy in the prion diseases. The aim of our proposal is to address the issues by detection of the infectivity of patients' skin samples using animal bioassay and a new highly sensitive RT-QuIC assay. We believe that our study will not only provide insights into the pathogenesis and transmissibility of prion disease but also will develop preclinical definitive testing for prion disease.
Funding Agency Agency National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Type Exploratory/Developmental Grants (R21)
Project # 1R21NS096626-01
Application # 9092119
Study Section Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1)
Program Officer Wong, May Project Start 2016-02-01
Project End 2018-01-31
Budget Start 2016-02-01
Budget End 2017-01-31
Support Year 1
Fiscal Year 2016
Total Cost
Indirect Cost Institution Name Case Western Reserve University
Department Pathology
Type Schools of Medicine
DUNS # 077758407
City Cleveland
State OH
Country United States
Zip Code 44106
TUESDAY, MAY 10, 2016
Accessing transmissibility and diagnostic marker of skin prions
Variably protease-sensitive prionopathy (VPSPr), a recently identified and seemingly sporadic human prion disease, is distinct from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) but shares features of Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease (GSS). However, contrary to exclusively inherited GSS, no prion protein (PrP) gene variations have been detected in VPSPr, suggesting that VPSPr might be the long-sought sporadic form of GSS. snip...
In conclusion, we propose that VPSPr is transmissible and, therefore, is an authentic prion disease. However, transmissibility cannot be sustained through serial passages presumably because human PrPC (or the mouse brain environment) cannot efficiently convert and propagate the VPSPr PrPSc species. If this is the case, uncovering the properties of human PrP that are required to replicate more efficiently the prion strains associated with VPSPr may help clarify the PrPSc mode of formation in this intriguing disease.
2015 PRION CONFERENCE
*** RE-P.164: Blood transmission of prion infectivity in the squirrel monkey: The Baxter study
***suggest that blood donations from cases of GSS (and perhaps other familial forms of TSE) carry more risk than from vCJD cases, and that little or no risk is associated with sCJD. ***
P.164: Blood transmission of prion infectivity in the squirrel monkey: The Baxter study
Paul Brown1, Diane Ritchie2, James Ironside2, Christian Abee3, Thomas Kreil4, and Susan Gibson5 1NIH (retired); Bethesda, MD USA; 2University of Edinburgh; Edinburgh, UK; 3University of Texas; Bastrop, TX USA; 4Baxter Bioscience; Vienna, Austria; 5University of South Alabama; Mobile, AL USA
Five vCJD disease transmissions and an estimated 1 in 2000 ‘silent’ infections in UK residents emphasize the continued need for information about disease risk in humans. A large study of blood component infectivity in a non-human primate model has now been completed and analyzed. Among 1 GSS, 4 sCJD, and 3 vCJD cases, only GSS leukocytes transmitted disease within a 5–6 year surveillance period. A transmission study in recipients of multiple whole blood transfusions during the incubation and clinical stages of sCJD and vCJD in ic-infected donor animals was uniformly negative. These results, together with other laboratory studies in rodents and nonhuman primates and epidemiological observations in humans, suggest that blood donations from cases of GSS (and perhaps other familial forms of TSE) carry more risk than from vCJD cases, and that little or no risk is associated with sCJD. The issue of decades-long incubation periods in ‘silent’ vCJD carriers remains open.
ran across an old paper from 1984 ;
***The occurrence of contact cases raises the possibility that transmission in families may be effected by an unusually virulent strain of the agent. ***
EVIDENCE FOR CASE-TO-CASE TRANSMISSION OF C.J.D.
The possible iatrogenic transmission of C.J.D. by neurosurgery, corneal transplantation and stereotactic electrodes has been suggested in the past (Duffy et al., 1974: Bernouilli et al., 1977; Masters et al., 1979a). In this series the close temporal relationship of neurosurgical procedures on two affected patients and three patients, unaffected at the time but who subsequently developed the disease is described. This provides strong circumstantial evidence of iatrogenic transmission by neurosurgery. Although sterilisation procedures have improved since the cases described, the unusual resistance of the agent and the recent description of probable neurosurgical transmission in France (Foncin et al., 1980) suggests that there is a continued risk of accidental transmission. However, brain biopsy to confirm the diagnosis of C.J.D. is now an unusual event and computed tomography has obviated the need for ventriculography.
The depth electrodes putatively responsible for one case of iatrogenic transmission in this series were inadequately sterilised in formalin and were subsequently used in over 200 patients. The neurosurgical instruments used in the cases of presumed neurosurgical transmission were sterilised using autoclaving procedures which were inadequate according to current advice (Gajdusek et al., 1978). However, despite detailed investigation, no cases other than those described above are known to have developed C.J.D. Thus, despite the possible implantation of the agent directly into the central nervous system, a large number of patients failed to develop the disease. This provides circumstantial evidence of an inherited susceptibility to the agent and suggests that cases of iatrogenic transmission may have occurred due to the unfortunate temporal proximity of susceptible individuals exposed to the agent.
In the close geographic group of three cases possible nodes of transmission can be suggested, either iatrogenic or through dental procedures, but these must remain conjectural. It is known, however, that the similar scrapie agent can be transmitted from the gums of animals (Adams and Edgar, 1978). Such close spatial clustering of cases is extremely unusual, being previously reported in England (Matthews, 1975a), Czechoslovakia (Mayer et al., 1977) and Hungary (Majtenyi, 1978), but not detected in the study of the epidemiology of C.J.D. in urban Paris (Cathala et al., 1978) where the incidence was found to be relatively high.
The occurrence of the disease in a patient who had contact with cases of familial C.J.D., but was not genetically related, has been described in Chile (Galvez et al., 1980) and in France (Brown et al., 1979b). In Chile the patient was related by marriage, but with no consanguinity, and had social contact with subsequently affected family members for 13 years before developing the disease. The contact case in France also married into a family in which C.J.D. was prevalent and had close contact with an affected member. In neither instance did the spouse of the non-familial case have the disease. The case described in this report was similarly related to affected family members and social contact had occurred for 20 years prior to developing C.J.D. If contact transmission had occurred, the minimum transmission period would be 11 years. Contact between sporadic cases has not been described and it is remarkable that possible contact transmissions have all been with familial cases. No method of transmission by casual social contact has been suggested.
***The occurrence of contact cases raises the possibility that transmission in families may be effected by an unusually virulent strain of the agent.
snip...see full text here;
snip...see full text ;
Sunday, December 9, 2018
Variable Protease-Sensitive Prionopathy Transmission to Bank Voles CDC Volume 25, Number 1—January 2019
Diagnosis and Reporting of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
Singeltary, Sr et al. JAMA.2001; 285: 733-734. Vol. 285 No. 6, February 14, 2001 JAMA Diagnosis and Reporting of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
To the Editor:
In their Research Letter, Dr Gibbons and colleagues1 reported that the annual US death rate due to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) has been stable since 1985. These estimates, however, are based only on reported cases, and do not include misdiagnosed or preclinical cases. It seems to me that misdiagnosis alone would drastically change these figures. An unknown number of persons with a diagnosis of Alzheimer disease in fact may have CJD, although only a small number of these patients receive the postmortem examination necessary to make this diagnosis. Furthermore, only a few states have made CJD reportable. Human and animal transmissible spongiform encephalopathies should be reportable nationwide and internationally.
Terry S. Singeltary, Sr Bacliff, Tex
1. Gibbons RV, Holman RC, Belay ED, Schonberger LB. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the United States: 1979-1998. JAMA. 2000;284:2322-2323.
Diagnosis and Reporting of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
Singeltary, Sr et al. JAMA.2001; 285: 733-734.
BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL
BMJ
U.S. Scientist should be concerned with a CJD epidemic in the U.S., as well....
02 January 2000
Terry S Singeltary
retired
US scientists develop a possible test for BSE
BMJ 1999; 319 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.319.7220.1312b (Published 13 November 1999) Cite this as: BMJ 1999;319:1312
Rapid responses Response
Re: vCJD in the USA * BSE in U.S.
15 November 1999
Terry S Singeltary
NA
medically retired
January 28, 2003; 60 (2) VIEWS & REVIEWS
Monitoring the occurrence of emerging forms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the United States
Ermias D. Belay, Ryan A. Maddox, Pierluigi Gambetti, Lawrence B. Schonberger
First published January 28, 2003, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1212/01.WNL.0000036913.87823.D6
Abstract
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) attracted increased attention in the mid-1980s because of the emergence among UK cattle of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), which has been shown to be transmitted to humans, causing a variant form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). The BSE outbreak has been reported in 19 European countries, Israel, and Japan, and human cases have so far been identified in four European countries, and more recently in a Canadian resident and a US resident who each lived in Britain during the BSE outbreak. To monitor the occurrence of emerging forms of CJD, such as vCJD, in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been conducting surveillance for human TSEs through several mechanisms, including the establishment of the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center. Physicians are encouraged to maintain a high index of suspicion for vCJD and use the free services of the pathology center to assess the neuropathology of clinically diagnosed and suspected cases of CJD or other TSEs.
Received May 7, 2002. Accepted August 28, 2002.
RE-Monitoring the occurrence of emerging forms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the United States
Terry S. Singeltary, retired (medically)
Published March 26, 2003
26 March 2003
Terry S. Singeltary, retired (medically) CJD WATCH
I lost my mother to hvCJD (Heidenhain Variant CJD). I would like to comment on the CDC's attempts to monitor the occurrence of emerging forms of CJD. Asante, Collinge et al [1] have reported that BSE transmission to the 129-methionine genotype can lead to an alternate phenotype that is indistinguishable from type 2 PrPSc, the commonest sporadic CJD. However, CJD and all human TSEs are not reportable nationally. CJD and all human TSEs must be made reportable in every state and internationally. I hope that the CDC does not continue to expect us to still believe that the 85%+ of all CJD cases which are sporadic are all spontaneous, without route/source. We have many TSEs in the USA in both animal and man. CWD in deer/elk is spreading rapidly and CWD does transmit to mink, ferret, cattle, and squirrel monkey by intracerebral inoculation. With the known incubation periods in other TSEs, oral transmission studies of CWD may take much longer. Every victim/family of CJD/TSEs should be asked about route and source of this agent. To prolong this will only spread the agent and needlessly expose others. In light of the findings of Asante and Collinge et al, there should be drastic measures to safeguard the medical and surgical arena from sporadic CJDs and all human TSEs. I only ponder how many sporadic CJDs in the USA are type 2 PrPSc?
Reply to Singletary Ryan A. Maddox, MPH Other Contributors: Published March 26, 2003
Mr. Singletary raises several issues related to current Creutzfeldt- Jakob disease (CJD) surveillance activities. Although CJD is not a notifiable disease in most states, its unique characteristics, particularly its invariably fatal outcome within usually a year of onset, make routine mortality surveillance a useful surrogate for ongoing CJD surveillance.[1] In addition, because CJD is least accurately diagnosed early in the course of illness, notifiable-disease surveillance could be less accurate than, if not duplicative of, current mortality surveillance.[1] However, in states where making CJD officially notifiable would meaningfully facilitate the collection of data to monitor for variant CJD (vCJD) or other emerging prion diseases, CDC encourages the designation of CJD as a notifiable disease.[1] Moreover, CDC encourages physicians to report any diagnosed or suspected CJD cases that may be of special public health importance (e.g., vCJD, iatrogenic CJD, unusual CJD clusters).
As noted in our article, strong evidence is lacking for a causal link between chronic wasting disease (CWD) of deer and elk and human disease,[2] but only limited data seeking such evidence exist. Overall, the previously published case-control studies that have evaluated environmental sources of infection for sporadic CJD have not consistently identified strong evidence for a common risk factor.[3] However, the power of a case-control study to detect a rare cause of CJD is limited, particularly given the relatively small number of subjects generally involved and its long incubation period, which may last for decades. Because only a very small proportion of the US population has been exposed to CWD, a targeted surveillance and investigation of unusual cases or case clusters of prion diseases among persons at increased risk of exposure to CWD is a more efficient approach to detecting the possible transmission of CWD to humans. In collaboration with appropriate local and state health departments and the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center, CDC is facilitating or conducting such surveillance and case- investigations, including related laboratory studies to characterize CJD and CWD prions.
Mr. Singletary also expresses concern over a recent publication by Asante and colleagues indicating the possibility that some sporadic CJD cases may be attributable to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).[4] The authors reported that transgenic mice expressing human prion protein homozygous for methionine at codon 129, when inoculated with BSE prions, developed a molecular phenotype consistent with a subtype of sporadic CJD. Although the authors implied that BSE might cause a sporadic CJD-like illness among persons homozygous for methionine, the results of their research with mice do not necessarily directly apply to the transmission of BSE to humans. If BSE causes a sporadic CJD-like illness in humans, an increase in sporadic CJD cases would be expected to first occur in the United Kingdom, where the vast majority of vCJD cases have been reported. In the United Kingdom during 1997 through 2002, however, the overall average annual mortality rate for sporadic CJD was not elevated; it was about 1 case per million population per year. In addition, during this most recent 6-year period following the first published description of vCJD in 1996, there was no increasing trend in the reported annual number of UK sporadic CJD deaths.[3, 5] Furthermore, surveillance in the UK has shown no increase in the proportion of sporadic CJD cases that are homozygous for methionine (Will RG, National CJD Surveillance Unit, United Kingdom, 2003; personal communication).
References
1. Gibbons RV, Holman RC, Belay ED, Schonberger LB. Diagnosis and reporting of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. JAMA 2001;285:733-734.
2. Belay ED, Maddox RA, Gambetti P, Schonberger LB. Monitoring the occurrence of emerging forms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the United States. Neurology 2003;60:176-181.
3. Belay ED. Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in humans. Annu Rev Microbiol 1999;53:283-314.
4. Asante EA, Linehan JM, Desbruslais M, et al. BSE prions propagate as either variant CJD-like or sporadic CJD-like prion strains in transgenic mice expressing human prion protein. EMBO J 2002;21:6358-6366.
5. The UK Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance Unit. CJD statistics. Available at: http://www.cjd.ed.ac.uk/figures.htm. Accessed February 18, 2003.
Competing Interests: None declared.
Copyright © 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Newsdesk
Tracking spongiform encephalopathies in North America
Xavier Bosch
Available online 29 July 2003.
Volume 3, Issue 8, August 2003, Page 463
“My name is Terry S Singeltary Sr, and I live in Bacliff, Texas. I lost my mom to hvCJD (Heidenhain variant CJD) and have been searching for answers ever since. What I have found is that we have not been told the truth. CWD in deer and elk is a small portion of a much bigger problem..” .............................
the British disease, i don't think so, i think it is a global disease of zoonosis TSE Prion from many species, and friendly fire there from...TSS
*** USA sporadic CJD MAD COW DISEASE HAS HUGE PROBLEM Video
*** sporadic CJD linked to mad cow disease
*** you can see video here and interview with Jeff's Mom, and scientist telling you to test everything and potential risk factors for humans
Singeltary on TSE Prion
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2018
MAD COW USA FLASHBACK FRIDAY DECEMBER 14, 2018
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2018
Benefit cuts hit mad cow disease sufferer A girl born severely disabled from vCJD may lose her home under universal credit
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 09, 2018
Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease CJD, BSE, Scrapie, CWD, TSE Prion Annual Report December 14, 2018
Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2018
EFSA EU summary report trends and sources of zoonoses, zoonotic agents and food-borne outbreaks in 2017 and BSE TSE Prion Risk PAP December 14, 2018
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2018
Benefit cuts hit mad cow disease sufferer A girl born severely disabled from vCJD may lose her home under universal credit
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2018
EFSA EU summary report trends and sources of zoonoses, zoonotic agents and food-borne outbreaks in 2017 and BSE TSE Prion Risk PAP December 14, 2018
prepare for the storm...
CJD QUESTIONNAIRE
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 09, 2018
Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease CJD, BSE, Scrapie, CWD, TSE Prion Annual Report December 14, 2018
DECEMBER 14, 2018, 21 YEARS POST DOD MOM HEIDENHAIN VARIANT CREUTZFELDT JAKOB DISEASE HVCJD DECEMBER 14, 1997, JUST MADE A PROMISE TO MOM, AND YOU DON'T BREAK PROMISES WITH YOUR MOM, NEVER FORGET, AND NEVER LET THEM FORGET...
wasted days and wasted nights...Freddy Fender
TERRY S. SINGELTARY SR., Bacliff, Texas USA 77518 <flounder9@verizon.net>
