A new study has game-changing information about Alzheimer's disease: it may be transmitted.
A group of scientists from the UK was able to stumble upon the discovery when they were working on another kind of brain disorder called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a broad term for a group of degenerative brain disorders that share similar symptoms with certain types of dementia including Alzheimer's disease. The major difference is that CJD can progress more rapidly and can occur in both humans and animals.
A person that is infected with the disease can develop microscopic holes that resemble a sponge in certain parts of the brain tissues. Although the disease can be sporadic or familial, there have been a small number of cases where the disease was transmitted as the infected human tissue was passed on to healthy people through medical procedures such as skin transplant. Specifically, the infection is transferred through prions, a type of protein that has the ability to attach itself onto metal surfaces such as those that are commonly used in health care settings, including surgical instruments.
Unfortunately, these types of proteins cannot be eliminated by the standard sterilization procedures.
In the British research, the scientists learned that 8 men and women who received human growth hormones between the years of 1958 and 1985 eventually developed CJD. However, at least half of them had significant presence of amyloid deposits in their brain cells, a common occurrence among Alzheimer's patients.
Nevertheless, the researchers want to emphasize that this is mainly theoretical. Further, other health experts downplay the results due to the very small sample size. They stress that old age and genetics still remain as two of the most common risk factors associated with Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's disease continues to be one of the most common types of dementia. In the United States, at least one in every three patients will die from the disease. So far, the ultimate cause and cure are not yet known.
