Nature 564, 415–419 (2018)

The Alzheimer’s disease–associated protein, amyloid-β protein (Aβ), is transmissible by iatrogenic transmission and can seed deposits in the brain of recipients.

Individuals treated with human cadaveric growth hormone (c-hGH) contaminated with prions during childhood who subsequently developed Creutzfeld–Jakob disease were previously found to have Aβ deposits in their brains, and had they lived long enough that they may have developed disease.

Researchers from the United Kingdom and Japan were able to track down the c-hGH samples used in these individuals and found that they contained Aβ and tau proteins and that these were able to seed Aβ plaques in mice.

The authors’ findings have implications for medical and surgical procedures to try to minimize risk of Aβ transmission.