Very interesting - thank you for sharing.<p>Summary for others:<p>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.
Prions are quite difficult to inactivate. Table 2 in this paper:<p><a href="http://www.shea-online.org/Assets/files/other_papers/Prion.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.shea-online.org/Assets/files/other_papers/Prion.p...</a><p>shows data on what seems to work and not. "Standard" autoclave procedures don't.<p>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.<p>Anybody know if surgical instrument disinfection procedures vary according to the particulars of the patient they were used on?
<i>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.</i><p>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.
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.