A study published in Nature magazine has found proof of Alzheimer’s disease in living people which was believed to have been caused by deceased donors. It is believed that these people developed Alzheimer’s as a result of receiving donor hormones to treat short stature. Researchers at the University College London and its affiliated hospital have found five cases of Alzheimer’s in people that were attributed to donor hormones that they received in childhood.
The transfer of toxic proteins, known as prions, from the banned hormone treatment is believed to have caused the early onset of Alzheimer’s disease. The hormones in question were derived from cadavers and were given to children to treat short stature, sometimes without the knowledge or consent of the donor family. It is believed that these findings may have important implications for understanding and treating Alzheimer’s, the cause of 60—70 percent of cases of dementia.
The lead author of the research suggests that there is no way that Alzheimer’s disease can be transmitted between individuals during usual activities of daily life or routine medical care. However, he also advised on the importance of reviewing measures to prevent accidental transmission of the disease at other medical or surgical procedures to avoid similar cases from happening in the future.
The study suggests that the mechanism causing Alzheimer’s could be similar to that of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a fatal condition that affects the brain and is the human form of “mad cow’s disease”. It was also announced in 2021 that a vaccine for Alzheimer’s was on the horizon after researchers found a treatment that reversed memory loss in mice. There are ongoing clinical trials for at least seven vaccines designed to treat the disease.