Immunohistochemical staining of cerebellar tissue of the patient who died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob diseaseWIKIMEDIA, CDCFrom skin samples of 23 patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a human neurodegenerative ailment akin to mad cow disease, researchers have identified low levels of the causative misfolded protein aggregates called prions. When the team inoculated transgenic mice with a suspension of skin cells from two of the CJD patients, all 12 animals developed disease-like symptoms within about a year and a half, according to the study, published this week (November 22) in Science Translational Medicine.
“We have provided clear evidence of infectious prions within the skin of patients dying of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,” coauthor Byron Caughey of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana tells MedicalResearch.com. “Whether the low levels of prions in the skin present an actual risk of transmission . . . remains to be determined,” he adds. “[I]n no way should our findings be taken as evidence that CJD can be transmitted between people via casual skin contact.”
Caughey notes that he and his colleagues examined “the full thickness of the skin, including the deepest innervated layers.” Whether the surface of the skin contains infectious prions will require further work. Also unclear is whether the skin prion levels found in this study ...
