
Treatment from Brain Tissue May Have Spread Alzheimer's Protein - mtviewdave
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/09/09/438839277/brain-tissue-transplants-may-have-spread-alzheimers-protein
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qCOVET
Very interesting - thank you for sharing.

Summary for others:

Protein misfolding and aggregation inside the cell was known to contribute to
Alzheimers. This article points to the possibility of misfolded and aggregated
proteins of Alzheimer patients triggering (or seeding) misfolding and
aggregation of otherwise 'healthy' proteins in non-alzheimer patients. Much
like the mad cow disease.

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jjoonathan
Are CJD and Alzheimer's two names for the same thing, just with different
mechanisms of transmission and initial loads?

(I walked away from a protein misfolding seminar with the vague impression
that this was the case but I never managed to track down someone who knew
enough to answer.)

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sp332
They are different, but related. _Some symptoms of CJD can be similar to
symptoms of other progressive neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s or
Huntington’s disease. However, CJD causes unique changes in brain tissue which
can be seen at autopsy. It also tends to cause more rapid deterioration of a
person’s abilities than Alzheimer’s disease or most other types of dementia._

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ridgeguy
Prions are quite difficult to inactivate. Table 2 in this paper:

[http://www.shea-
online.org/Assets/files/other_papers/Prion.p...](http://www.shea-
online.org/Assets/files/other_papers/Prion.pdf)

shows data on what seems to work and not. "Standard" autoclave procedures
don't.

If the misfolded proteins referred to in the article share the inactivation
robustness of prion proteins, it doesn't seem all that remote a possibility
that surgical instruments used on Alzheimers patients could spread the
illness.

Anybody know if surgical instrument disinfection procedures vary according to
the particulars of the patient they were used on?

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evoloution
What do you do with neurosurgical tools used in CJD patients? THROW AWAY!
(disposed by incineration)

Edit: source=
[http://epi.publichealth.nc.gov/cd/docs/CJD_FAQ.pdf](http://epi.publichealth.nc.gov/cd/docs/CJD_FAQ.pdf)

~~~
nitrogen
Is there any way of sanitizing surfaces or tools exposed to prions?

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dsugarman
_The study involved autopsies of eight people who had received injections of
human growth hormone as children more than 30 years ago. The growth hormone,
extracted from human pituitary glands, had been tainted with a protein that
caused these people to develop a fatal brain disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease._

A very high % of NFL players currently take HGH or have taken HGH for a
significant amount of time. Brain health is a constant topic of conversation
for the NFL, I wonder if transmitting brain disease through brain tissue
injections is something they need to look at outside of concussions.

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raverbashing
Not sure, but maybe it's obtained through a different process now? (genetic
engineering of bacteria)

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Turing_Machine
Yes, according to the article it hasn't been made from human tissue since the
late 1980s.

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eponeponepon
I have just seen the front page of this morning's Mirror (lowish-quality UK
newspaper), and it covers this story with the headline "YOU CAN CATCH
ALZHEIMER'S". Appalling.

