Alzheimer's disease can be contagious, scientists say
Last reviewed: 17.10.2021
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Recent research has shown that Alzheimer's disease can be infectious in nature, the same as mad cow disease.
Alzheimer's syndrome and cow rabies are close relatives, since both diseases occur for similar reasons. In both cases, the onset of the disease is associated with an irregular configuration of protein molecules. It is known that the protein has a unique spatial structure. But sometimes it happens that the protein can have several different structures, including pathological, as a result of which the molecules begin to form massive aggregates, which leads to clogging of the nervous system.
Such diseases as mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob syndrome are highly contagious and are caused by prion proteins, which get into the human body and provoke other proteins to form a pathological spatial structure. Infection occurs when eating meat of a sick animal. As it turned out, Alzheimer's disease can also be infectious. At least, so show the results of recent research by American scientists (University of Texas).
Scientists took a sample of the brain tissue of patients with Alzheimer's disease and injected it into healthy mice. In parallel, other animals were injected with a normal pattern of brain tissue. The results of the experiment showed that amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, characteristic signs of Alzheimer's disease, began to form in the brain of mice that received an injection of diseased tissue.
Statistics show that Alzheimer's is in sixth place among the likely causes of death among the US population. Therefore, the results of this study do not add to the joy of doctors and relatives of patients.
Recall that recently scientists have discovered that the first target of Alzheimer's disease is the sense of smell, and even earlier they found a revolutionary way to diagnose Alzheimer's disease.
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