Researchers say protein linked to Alzheimer's could be spread via surgical tools

A research team is concerned that sticky proteins found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease could be spread to others by surgical instruments, even after they have been sterilized with formaldehyde.

Researchers in the UK looked at the brains of eight patients who died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) after being injected with pituitary growth hormone from cadavers years earlier, The Guardian reports. Six of those brains had an unusually high buildup of amyloid beta, the protein linked to Alzheimer's. The patients were between the ages of 36 to 51, and none had the gene variants that bring about early onset dementia. The findings could suggest that the seeds of amyloid beta were spread to the patients along with the abnormal proteins that gave them CJD.

Writing in the journal Nature, the researchers said scientists need to investigate if amyloid betas can be spread through medical procedures. While the team says there is no evidence that Alzheimer's is contagious or can be passed on through a blood transfusion, they still want to see more research conducted. Eric Karran of Alzheimer's Research UK concedes that the "findings sound concerning," but says he isn't worried himself. "It's unusual for people of the ages studied in this research to have amyloid in the brain, but we don't know whether they would have gone on to develop Alzheimer's, and there is currently no evidence that people who received human-derived growth hormone have a higher rate of the disease," he said.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up