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You can get Alzheimer's disease
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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15 years ago, 8 people died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (mad cow disease). Studying these cases, a group of British scientists suggested that the causes of Alzheimer's may be associated with the entry of beta-amyloids into the body, which destroy brain cells.
Scientists have found that the development of Alzheimer's is provoked by the accumulation of beta-amyloid proteins in brain cells. The formation of beta-amyloid from sections of the APP protein, which is necessary for the restoration of brain cells and neural connections. Failures in the work of APP lead to the formation of beta-amyloid protein plaques and cell death.
A group of scientists from the UK, led by Sebastian Brandner, almost by accident, revealed the possible causes of Alzheimer's disease, the scientists' goal was to establish the true causes that led to the death of 8 people more than 10 years ago. The disease develops in people spontaneously, due to the appearance of "incorrect" proteins in nerve cells - prions (with a curved structure), which disrupt the functioning of proteins, which entails the death of brain cells. Infection with mad cow disease occurs when eating the brain of a sick animal or after treatment with contaminated drugs.
Brandner and his colleagues studied cases of mad cow disease, as it turned out, in Britain since the late 1950s, short children were injected with growth hormones, which were extracted from the pituitary glands of dead people. Almost 30 years later, this medical program was closed, since according to some data, the treatment subsequently caused mad cow disease.
The experts also studied the nervous tissue of the brain of eight people who were injected with contaminated somatotropin, and as a result found that the nervous tissues, in addition to prions, contained beta-amyloid proteins (in 6 out of 8 people). The scientists found the maximum amount of pathogenic proteins inside the pituitary gland.
The researchers recalled the results of previous studies conducted with rodents and macaques. During the work, beta-amyloid proteins were injected into the experimental animals (in small doses) in different parts of the body and as a result, it was established that regardless of the area of penetration of the proteins into the body, this can cause Alzheimer's disease (even if the proteins penetrated into tissues located far from the brain).
At this stage, scientists cannot conduct animal experiments and confirm the fact that Alzheimer's disease can be transmitted. This is primarily due to the ban on working with somatotropin due to ethical issues and the destruction of most of the stocks.
The journal where the article by Brandner's group was published noted that this discovery is extremely important and has global implications. Therefore, a number of specialists have already expressed a desire to help Brandner's research group and study other cases of death from mad cow disease in people who received somatotropin as children. If the assumptions of Brandner and his team are confirmed by other specialists, then new standards for the quality of drugs and the processing of instruments will be required to prevent the transfer of beta-amyloids.
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