A nasal brush test can rapidly and accurately diagnose Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), an incurable and ultimately fatal neurodegenerative disorder, according to a study by National Institutes of Health scientists and their Italian colleagues.
Up to now, a definitive CJD diagnosis requires testing brain tissue obtained after death or by biopsy in living patients. The study describing the less invasive nasal test appears in the Aug. 7 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
CJD is a prion disease. These diseases originate when, for reasons not fully understood, normally harmless prion protein molecules become abnormal and gather in clusters. Prion diseases affect animals and people. Human prion diseases include variant, familial and sporadic CJD. The most common form, sporadic CJD, affects an estimated 1 in one million people annually worldwide. Other prion diseases include scrapie in sheep; chronic wasting disease in deer, elk and moose; and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, in cattle. Scientists have associated the accumulation of these clusters with tissue damage that leaves sponge-like holes in the brain.
“This exciting advance, the culmination of decades of studies on prion diseases, markedly improves on available diagnostic tests for CJD that are less reliable, more difficult for patients to tolerate, and require more time to obtain results,” said Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a component of NIH. “With additional validation, this test has potential for use in clinical and agricultural settings.”
An easy-to-use diagnostic test would let doctors clearly differentiate prion diseases from other brain diseases, according to Byron Caughey, Ph.D., the lead NIAID scientist involved in the study. Although specific CJD treatments are not available, prospects for their development and effectiveness could be enhanced by early and accurate diagnoses. Further, a test that identifies people with various forms of prion diseases could help to prevent the spread of prion diseases among and between species. For instance, it is known that human prion diseases can be transmitted via medical procedures such as blood transfusions, transplants and the contamination of surgical instruments. People also have contracted variant CJD after exposure to BSE-infected cattle.
The Latest on: Human Prion Disease
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Human Prion Disease” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Human Prion Disease
- Zombie Deer Disease: Is it a Threat to Humans?on April 27, 2024 at 9:22 pm
In the serene expanses of the American wilderness, a hidden menace may be lurking among the deer, elk, and moose populations. Chronic wasting disease (CWD), more commonly known as the "zombie deer ...
- What are prion diseases? Hunters died of fatal disorder after eating tainted deer meat, researchers sayon April 27, 2024 at 9:34 am
A recent report published in the medical journal Neurology suggests that two hunters contracted Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a fatal neurological disorder, after eating venison obtained from deer ...
- CDC: Deer meat didn't cause hunters' deaths; concerns about chronic wasting disease remainon April 26, 2024 at 1:26 pm
There have been no cases of chronic wasting disease in people to date, the CDC says. But it is still investigating the potential risks.
- Rare and fatal brain disease in two deer hunters heightens concerns about CWDon April 25, 2024 at 3:34 pm
Two friends who hunted deer together at the same lodge contracted an extremely rare brain disease and died, raising fears that they may have been infected by contaminated venison. A team of ...
- 'Zombie Deer' Disease: Zoonotic Transfer Suspected After Two Human Deathson April 25, 2024 at 5:27 am
Two hunters have died after consuming venison from a population of deer known to be infected with chronic wasting disease – an incurable, fatal prion sometimes known as " zombie deer " disease not ...
- 2 die after eating CWD-infected meat: What to know about 'zombie deer disease'on April 24, 2024 at 11:32 am
CWD has never been found in humans, but researchers now believe there may be a risk of the fatal disease spreading after two mysterious deaths.
- Consumption of contaminated venison suspected in cases of deer hunters with prion diseaseon April 23, 2024 at 7:30 am
A small team of medical workers and researchers in the U.S. has published a case study of two men, both deer hunters, who developed a rare prion disease. In their study, published in the journal ...
- 2 hunters may have died of prion disease from eating contaminated deer meat, researchers sayon April 22, 2024 at 10:35 am
A new report calls for further study into a possible link between chronic wasting disease in deer and a rare and deadly brain disease in humans.
- Fears ‘zombie deer disease’ could ‘pass to humans like mad cow disease’ after death of menon April 22, 2024 at 9:40 am
SCIENTISTS fear two hunters may have contracted a ‘zombie deer disease’ after eating infected meat. The US pair died soon after eating deer meat which scientists believe could have ...
- Two Hunters Died of Rare Prion Disease. Doctors Suspect a First-of-Its Kind Deer Transmissionon April 20, 2024 at 9:15 am
Two recent cases of prion disease in the U.S. may have been caused by contaminated deer meat, though the connection is still unproven.
via Bing News