Scientists Document First-Ever Transmitted Alzheimer's Cases, Tied To No-Longer-Used Medical Procedure (statnews.com) 30
Andrew Joseph, writing for STAT News: There was something odd about these Alzheimer's cases. Part of it was the patients' presentations: Some didn't have the classic symptoms of the condition. But it was also that the patients were in their 40s and 50s, even their 30s, far younger than people who normally develop the disease. They didn't even have the known genetic mutations that can set people on the course for such early-onset Alzheimer's. But this small handful of patients did share a particular history. As children, they had received growth hormone taken from the brains of human cadavers, which used to be a treatment for a number of conditions that caused short stature.
Now, decades later, they were showing signs of Alzheimer's. In the interim, scientists had discovered that that type of hormone treatment they got could unwittingly transfer bits of protein into recipients' brains. In some cases, it had induced a fatal brain disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD -- a finding that led to the banning of the procedure 40 years ago. It seemed that it wasn't just the proteins behind CJD that could get transferred. As the scientific team treating the patients reported Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, the hormone transplant seeded the beta-amyloid protein that's a hallmark of Alzheimer's in some recipients' brains, which, decades later, propagated into disease-causing plaques. They are the first known cases of transmitted Alzheimer's disease, likely a scientific anomaly yet a finding that adds another wrinkle to ongoing arguments about what truly causes Alzheimer's. "It looks real that some of these people developed early-onset Alzheimer's because of that [hormone treatment]," said Ben Wolozin, an expert on neurodegenerative diseases at Boston University's medical school, who was not involved in the study.
Now, decades later, they were showing signs of Alzheimer's. In the interim, scientists had discovered that that type of hormone treatment they got could unwittingly transfer bits of protein into recipients' brains. In some cases, it had induced a fatal brain disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD -- a finding that led to the banning of the procedure 40 years ago. It seemed that it wasn't just the proteins behind CJD that could get transferred. As the scientific team treating the patients reported Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, the hormone transplant seeded the beta-amyloid protein that's a hallmark of Alzheimer's in some recipients' brains, which, decades later, propagated into disease-causing plaques. They are the first known cases of transmitted Alzheimer's disease, likely a scientific anomaly yet a finding that adds another wrinkle to ongoing arguments about what truly causes Alzheimer's. "It looks real that some of these people developed early-onset Alzheimer's because of that [hormone treatment]," said Ben Wolozin, an expert on neurodegenerative diseases at Boston University's medical school, who was not involved in the study.
Brain transfusion carries brain disease (Score:1)
It just figures
Re:Brain transfusion carries brain disease (Score:5, Insightful)
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This really points to Alzheimers as a slow developing prion disease, or at least one variant of Alzheimers since it has already been demonstrated that there are more than one cause
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The plaques were thought to be a symptom of the disease and a part of the brain damage process, but not the cause of Alzheimer's
For quite some time the theory of those plaques causing the disease has been around, but certainly was also disputed for many years.
and not self replicating like mad cow prions.
Now that for me is the interesting part that the article writes too little about: How were those growth-hormones brought into the patients bodies?
BTW, when I was young a school mate died from AIDS which he acquired from blood-clotting factor treatments. Given the many examples of diseases spread via medication "made from humans", such should really be considered treatments of
Re:Brain transfusion carries brain disease (Score:4, Interesting)
Not Alzheimer’s (Score:2)
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Right. Beta Amyloid plaques are the symptoms of the disease process, not the cause. Is this guy from the 80's? It's like saying scars cause lacerations.
Really it's mostly Type III diabetes.
One dude is running an inpatient clinic where he puts oldsters on a carnivore diet along with nutritional supplements and exercise and sunlight and the recovery rates are amazing.
Brains run good on ketone bodies.
Re:Not Alzheimer’s (Score:4, Insightful)
Right. Beta Amyloid plaques are the symptoms of the disease process, not the cause.
More accurately: until recently, most scientists believed that the beta amyloid plaques was the likely cause of the cognitive decline exhibited in Alzheimer's disease, but recently, some people have put forth the suggestion that the beta amyloid is just a symptom, and not the actual cause. This has yet to be definitively shown.
Is this guy from the 80's? It's like saying scars cause lacerations.
Right now it's up in the air. This particular result suggests that the causal hypothesis might be right after all.
Really it's mostly Type III diabetes.
Another hypothesis, as yet unproven. Quoting the NIH: "The exact connection between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and type 2 diabetes is still in debate." (ref [nih.gov])
One dude is running an inpatient clinic where he puts oldsters on a carnivore diet along with nutritional supplements and exercise and sunlight and the recovery rates are amazing. Brains run good on ketone bodies.
Actual science is done with statistics, not anecdotes.
Here's a summary of what we know: https://www.nia.nih.gov/health... [nih.gov]
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>>One dude is running an inpatient clinic where he puts oldsters on a carnivore diet along with nutritional supplements and exercise and sunlight and the recovery rates are amazing.
Going to need a citation on this since most sources say the opposite
"A new, comprehensive review has determined that diets high in plants, such as the Mediterranean diet, are most effective in decreasing Alzheimer's risk. The review also notes the typical Western diet, high in meat, saturated fat, and ultra-processed foods,
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Going to need a citation on this since most sources say the opposite
There is no citation. It's the typical "your immune system is enough" bullshit we've been hearing about for the past four years. If there was even a scintilla of evidence this had any effect you would have heard about it. You will not get your citation because they couldn't produce it in the first place to back up their comment.
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Modern Medical Science? Laughable! (Score:1)
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It's not "modern science". It's the weird cohort of people who go to become pediatric endocrinologists.
Seriously, look up the history of that specific medical field. It is a horror show. Current trans trend with fucking with puberty and normal sexual expression in children via administering of hormones? Actually probably not the worst "horrific medical malpractice by pediatric endocrinologists" this field produced in last century. These psychopathic sadists used to do shit like give growth hormones to kids
Big Black Nemisis (Score:2)
"We drink elixirs that we refine,
From the juices of the dying"
Best theory i've heard (Score:5, Interesting)
Associations of Infectious Agents with Alzheimer’s Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis https://content.iospress.com/a... [iospress.com]
Herpes simplex virus type 1 and Alzheimer's disease: increasing evidence for a major role of the virus https://www.frontiersin.org/ar... [frontiersin.org]
Infectious hypothesis of Alzheimer disease https://journals.plos.org/plos... [plos.org]
Cytomegalovirus: An Improbable Cause of Alzheimer Disease https://academic.oup.com/jid/a... [oup.com]
Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 in Alzheimer's Disease: The Enemy Within https://content.iospress.com/a... [iospress.com]
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When I eat some food that's been eaten by certain people (e.g. share a bite etc) I often get mouth ulcers. So I'm wondering if they're carrying some kind of virus or bacteria. I've done an extensive blood test (for other reasons) and tested negative for "everything" that the blood test tested for (which includes HSV1 and the STD herpes). So what they spread is probably something different. There are 100+ known herpes viruses though...
Elizabeth BÃthory (Score:2)
I'd like to believe that The Blood Countess was onto something. If we are discovering more and more diseases to be infectious, even previously thought to be non-contagious, then perhaps the reverse is true and at one point we may discover that we can use transmission to transplant cures to advanced diseases from younger or immune individuals, too.
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FYI Elizabeth Bathory was a noble woman who refused to marry, which would effectively give away power over her inheritance.
She also provided education and support for young women in her kingdom
One of her rejected suitors raised completely unsupported accusations in order to remove her from her position [illinoisstate.edu], and simps like you are still yapping about it like it was true
Re: Elizabeth BÃthory (Score:2)
If you haven't noticed, I'm suggesting that this LEGEND could give us some hope for the future. Stop being such a miserable git.
Vape-o-nomics: Why Everything is Addictive Now (Score:2)
Tom Nicholas just released the first in a three part series yesterday that explores this and other favorite topics like enshittification. It's worth a watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuTQbOo3Y30/ [youtube.com]
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Doh, posted in wrong window. This was meant for the UK ban on disposal vapes.
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I’m affected and I only took synthetic HGH (Score:4, Interesting)
I was the FIRST person granted access to Eli Lily’s Humatrope synthetic HGH growth hormone in early 1985 when I had just turn 3.
At the time of diagnosis, at 25 months old, I was the youngest to ever been officially diagnosed with true dwarfism. I had stopped all development except for my brain at 18 months, spontaneously. No one knows why, it’s a medical mystery. One day, my new doctor in the 2000s met me and said that he had written his doctoral thesis on me but didn’t realize it until I became his first adult hypopituitary patient and he read my file. It’s that rare
There are some 2,500 of us kids in the Humatrope trial. I was the first approved and I was the very last taken off of the HGH trial (1985-1992) and I have been on HGH on and off for my entire life, making me the person who has taken more of it than anyone in human history thus far.
Starting, at least noticeably, in July 2020 after I caught COVID and reaching a major major point when I caught COVID again in February 2022, I started having intense memory problems. By March 2022, it was so bad that I would get myself a cup of water, forget it, go back to the kitchen 3-4x and end up with 5 cups of water around my laptop
Because of this, in April 2022, I was diagnosed with having a strange form of dementia that they had never seen in anyone who was 41. Several neurologists stated that my prefrontal cortex seems to look more like an 80 or 90 year-old brain and has shrunk by 7% to date :-/
I have lost almost all ability to store new spatial memories after February 2022. Any place I knew before, I can navigate fine. Any place after, I just can’t store the memories no matter how hard I try. When I was compelled to go into the office (in another city far away) for the first and so-far-only time in November 2022, I got lost going to the restroom and people had to guide me back to my cubicle. Because I’m a hard worker, I accidentally became the last person there when I finished @ 6:30 PM I was so lost, I couldn’t find my frickin way to the exit. I just when you can’t frickin see the exit cuz you’re in this huge building and the door is around the corner, and you have no short-term spatial memory, let me tell you I wondered around there for 3 1/2 hours until the lights went out and i started getting really scared cuz it was a friday and i didn’t want to be there all week. I remembered to call my boss, who had to call security to come open up the building and get me out.
At least they give me a medical exemption for working from home 100% of the time, but I’m sooooo afraid that once i get let go that this is it for me. I think about suicide if that were to happen.
Now that I see this article, I’m sure it all makes sense. I for sure was never given the cadaver hormones, at least, i think. But I wouldnt’ be surprised if they got mixed in by accident. It’s all a white powder til it’s mixed.
Re:I’m affected and I only took synthetic HG (Score:4, Informative)
I worked in the blood industry, at a company that had operated under a consent decree since the 1990's due to the impact of HIV and the FDAs attempts to prevent it from happening again
This was most evident in the manufacture and uses of coagulants on children with bleeding disorders
There used to be different standards for tracking from donor to recipient, and even on the mixing of different batches
If I were you, I would be very suspicious of what I was given as a child, but resigned to the fact that no clear record keeping is in place
Please find joy in the things that you can continue to do without being haunted by that past you
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At least they give me a medical exemption for working from home 100% of the time, but I’m sooooo afraid that once i get let go that this is it for me. I think about suicide if that were to happen.
Consider going on disability instead; then you could work how you wanted/are able, perhaps even as a consultant.
Interesting, not genetic (Score:2)