Alzheimer's fear in hormone patients. Brain plaques may have been seeded by growth therapy

A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by John R. Radford.

Abstract

'Aβ seeds are known, like prions, to adhere to metal surfaces and to resist... conventional hospital sterilisation'.

Main

Abbot A. Nature 2015; 525: 165

This NEWS IN FOCUS, comments on the substantive report (LETTER) published in the same edition of the journal (Nature 2015; 525: 247–250). It has been suggested that Alzheimer's disease could be triggered by misfolding of the peptide amyloid-β from small amyloid-β 'seeds'. Thirty thousand children received human growth hormone, pooled from thousands of cadavers, from 1958 until 1985. Some of these products were contaminated with CJD prions, resulting tragically in over 200 deaths. In the study, the investigators found that in eight patients who died of iatrogenic CJD, four (different numbers reported in press releases) showed 'moderate to severe grey matter and vascular amyloid-β (Aβ) pathology'. In the LETTER, the investigators state there is little to suggest that Alzheimer's disease is contagious or transmissible. Notwithstanding this, they raise the following note of caution; 'our findings should prompt consideration of whether other known iatrogenic routes of prion transmission, including surgical instruments and blood products, may also be relevant to Aβ and other proteopathic seeds seen in neurodegenerative diseases.'