New Study Supports “Transmissible Alzheimer’s” Theory

Further evidence has been produced to support the theory that Alzheimer’s may be transmissible. A study in Swiss Medical Weekly outlines the results of the autopsies of 7 brains of victims of CJD who had received grafts of dura matter (the membrane that covers the spinal cord). A comparison was made to a set of 21 controls – victims of CJD who had not had surgical dura matter grafts. The results found that five of the seven to receive the grafts displayed plaques of amyloid-beta protein in blood vessels and grey matter, some of the pathological indicators of Alzheimer’s. The controls all lacked this Alzheimer’s indicator.

From such a small sample, the results are not conclusive. But it’s only 4 months since a corroborating study with similar results and pathology, but concerning injections of infected growth hormone from cadavers was published, suggesting this is certainly an area for further research. The current theory is that transplanted matter carried small amounts of the amyloid-beta protein which could seed in the brain and trigger Alzheimer’s. The CJD link is due to transport of the causative prion protein at the same time. Despite both diseases having long incubation periods, CJD progresses much faster once initiated, which could explain why none of the individuals studied displayed any outward Alzheimer’s symptoms.

Whilst neither growth hormone nor membranes from cadavers are used in surgery anymore, replaced instead by synthetics, there is some cause for concern. Amyloid-beta proteins are very sticky, often not fully removed in standard sterilisation of surgical equipment. If the postulated link does turn out to be true, it could have profound implications for surgical methods. At the moment however, more systematic studies are needed to confirm or disprove the link.

Photo: Flickr, Ann Gordon