A new study suggests that symptoms of early dementia in five adults may be linked to medical treatment using the now-discontinued human growth hormone that they received decades ago as children.
This study, published in the medical journal Nature, provides the first evidence that people develop medically acquired Alzheimer’s disease.
In these cases, patients’ early dementia symptoms may be due to the possible transmission of amyloid beta protein, a major component of Alzheimer’s disease, when it forms plaques in the brain.
Abnormal buildup of amyloid beta protein in the brain is linked to Alzheimer’s disease, and the new study suggests that amyloid beta contamination may be related to the early symptoms of dementia experienced by patients in the study.
It is important to clarify that the results of the study do not indicate that Alzheimer’s disease can be contagious, or transmitted like a viral or bacterial infection, for example, but it raises new questions about Alzheimer’s disease and other diseases, according to what the website published.CNN”.
In this regard, the lead author of the study and Director of the University College London Institute of Prion Diseases, Dr. John Collinge, stressed that “we must know that these are very rare cases, and most of them are related to medical procedures that are no longer used.”
The five adults suffered from growth hormone deficiency as children, and received marrow growth hormone prepared in a specific way from dead bodies. The medullary gland is located at the bottom of the brain, and human growth hormone, or what is known as HGH, is a natural hormone that is made and secreted by the medulla and promotes growth in children.
According to the study, human growth hormone treatment was given to at least 1,800 children with growth problems between 1959 and 1985. This treatment was discontinued because it caused some patients to develop fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, also known as mad cow disease, a rare disorder that affects the brain and leads to dementia.
The disease was found years after injections of contaminated proteins, and decades later, some samples were discovered contaminated with toxic amyloid beta proteins, which are the hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.
The researchers wrote in their study that Alzheimer’s disease may be transmissible under certain conditions, in a way that resembles conditions known as “prion diseases” — a group of rare progressive neurological disorders known to be linked to prion proteins, including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
On the other hand, experts insist that this does not mean that Alzheimer’s disease can be transmitted in any other way or through a medical procedure such as a blood transfusion or organ transplant.
In 2015, researchers previously described “possible evidence” that transfer of amyloid beta protein from human growth hormone to a recipient was possible, and then in 2018, they studied it in laboratory mice.
On the other hand, researchers from University College London and the National Hospital for Neurological and Brain Surgery in the United Kingdom considered that “we now provide evidence that Alzheimer’s disease is transmissible in certain circumstances.”
After the use of human growth hormones was discontinued in the 1980s due to concerns about transmission of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, strict procedures were put in place to reduce cross-contamination.
On the other hand, Dr. Richard Isaacson, who was not involved in the study, said, “It has long been suspected that Alzheimer’s disease may have some ability to be transmitted, similar to prion diseases, but previous research has not been able to prove this.”
This new type of Alzheimer’s disease is of great scientific interest, but there is no reason to fear it.
The way the disease was caused stopped more than 40 years ago, and transmission of the disease from one human brain to another in this way should never happen again.
For her part, Dr. Susan Koolhaas, from Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “This study has revealed more about how amyloid fragments spread within the brain, and this gives us more clues about how Alzheimer’s disease develops and potential new targets for future treatments.”
2024-01-31 16:35:00
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