scholarly journals Making blood safe: A filtration technology for removing infectious prions from red-cell concentrates

2005 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 29-32
Author(s):  
S.O. Sowemimo-Coker

Prion diseases (TSEs, transmissible spongiform encephalopathies) are fatal neurodegenerative diseases that affect both humans and animals, including scrapie in sheep, BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) in cattle and CJD (Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease) and its variant (vCJD) in humans. The recent occurrences of probable cases of transmission of vCJD through blood transfusion raises concerns about the safety of the blood supply and the possibility of transmission of the causative agent by blood transfusion from asymptomatic infected individuals.

2012 ◽  
Vol 93 (7) ◽  
pp. 1624-1629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rona Wilson ◽  
Chris Plinston ◽  
Nora Hunter ◽  
Cristina Casalone ◽  
Cristiano Corona ◽  
...  

The association between bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD) has demonstrated that cattle transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) can pose a risk to human health and raises the possibility that other ruminant TSEs may be transmissible to humans. In recent years, several novel TSEs in sheep, cattle and deer have been described and the risk posed to humans by these agents is currently unknown. In this study, we inoculated two forms of atypical BSE (BASE and H-type BSE), a chronic wasting disease (CWD) isolate and seven isolates of atypical scrapie into gene-targeted transgenic (Tg) mice expressing the human prion protein (PrP). Upon challenge with these ruminant TSEs, gene-targeted Tg mice expressing human PrP did not show any signs of disease pathology. These data strongly suggest the presence of a substantial transmission barrier between these recently identified ruminant TSEs and humans.


2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 382-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. E. Green

The transmissible spongiform encephalopathies include human diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and kuru as well as animal diseases such as scrapie and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The emergence of variant CJD, which is causally related to BSE, has generated much interest in the development of rapid and sensitive diagnostic tests for the pre-mortem diagnosis of CJD. In 1986 two proteins were detected in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with sporadic CJD. These proteins were later demonstrated to be members of the 14-3-3 family, and tests for the detection of CSF 14-3-3 were developed. A number of studies have shown that the detection of CSF 14-3-3 is an accurate test for sporadic CJD, although the results with variant CJD are less promising.


1999 ◽  
Vol 67 (12) ◽  
pp. 6591-6595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harmale Tiwana ◽  
Clyde Wilson ◽  
John Pirt ◽  
William Cartmell ◽  
Alan Ebringer

ABSTRACT Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is a neurological disorder, predominantly of British cattle, which belongs to the group of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies together with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), kuru, and scrapie. Autoantibodies to brain neurofilaments have been previously described in patients with CJD and kuru and in sheep affected by scrapie. Spongiform-like changes have also been observed in chronic experimental allergic encephalomyelitis, at least in rabbits and guinea pigs, and in these conditions autoantibodies to myelin occur. We report here that animals with BSE have elevated levels of immunoglobulin A autoantibodies to brain components, i.e., neurofilaments (P < 0.001) and myelin (P < 0.001), as well as toAcinetobacter calcoaceticus (P < 0.001), saprophytic microbes found in soil which have sequences cross-reacting with bovine neurofilaments and myelin, but there were no antibody elevations against Agrobacterium tumefaciens orEscherichia coli. The relevance of such mucosal autoantibodies or antibacterial antibodies to the pathology of BSE and its possible link to prions requires further evaluation.


2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (10) ◽  
pp. 273-278
Author(s):  
Steve Dealler

Steve Dealler is a medical microbiologist with Morecambe Bay Hospitals NHS Trust. His work on on the diagnosis, epidemiology and potential treatment of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies has brought him inter-national recognition. He has been at the forefront of work on the epidemiology of human food containing the vector for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), and the development of prophylaxis against variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). He is currently working on a potential treatment, pentosan polysulphate. Here he describes the current state of knowledge in the battle against this devastating disease and the political inertia that frustrated earlier attempts to prevent the epidemic.


Author(s):  
James W. Ironside ◽  
Matthew P. Frosch ◽  
Bernardino Ghetti

This chapter describes and illustrates the neuropathology of prion diseases, also known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. These diseases are characterized pathologically by varying combinations of spongiform change, neuronal loss, reactive gliosis, and prion protein (PrP) deposition. The morphologic pattern depends on the etiology of the disease and the genotype of the patient. Different clinicopathological phenotypes of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) have been described depending on the PRNP codon 129 genotype and the PrP isotype. A novel form known as variably protease-sensitive prionopathy has been recently identified. Familial prion diseases include familial CJD, Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease, and fatal familial insomnia. Over 40 different PRNP mutations have been identified. Acquired prion diseases include Kuru; iatrogenic CJD, particularly in recipients of contaminated human pituitary hormone, and variant CJD, which seems closely related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy.


Blood ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 108 (2) ◽  
pp. 745-748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sílvia Sisó ◽  
Lorenzo González ◽  
Fiona Houston ◽  
Nora Hunter ◽  
Stuart Martin ◽  
...  

Iatrogenic transmission by blood transfusion has been described in cases of human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), experimental ovine bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), and natural sheep scrapie, demonstrating that blood in these prion diseases is infectious. However, the possible effect of the transfusion, derived from differences in the inoculum (blood) and the route of infection (intravenous), on the pathologic phenotype of the disease in the recipients is not known. This study describes the neuropathologic phenotype of PrPd accumulation in sheep succumbing to neurologic disease after blood transfusion from donors experimentally infected with BSE; these were either clinically or subclinically affected at the time of donation. We demonstrate that blood can become infectious at early stages of ovine BSE infection and that the PrPd immunohistochemical phenotype is maintained after transfusion. This suggests that a change in the pathologic phenotype of vCJD would not be expected as a result of exposure to infected blood.


2002 ◽  
Vol 83 (11) ◽  
pp. 2897-2905 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora Hunter ◽  
James Foster ◽  
Angela Chong ◽  
Sandra McCutcheon ◽  
David Parnham ◽  
...  

Attempts to detect infectivity in the blood of humans and animals affected with transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs or prion diseases) have often been inconclusive because of the limitations of cross-species bioassays and the small volumes of blood that can be injected by the intracerebral route. A model has been developed for the experimental study of TSE transmission by blood transfusion using sheep experimentally infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or natural scrapie as donors and susceptible scrapie-free sheep as recipients. Donors and recipients of the same species greatly increase the sensitivity of the bioassay and in sheep large volumes of blood can be injected by the intravenous (i.v.) route. Transmission of BSE to a single animal using this approach was reported recently. This study confirms this result with a second transmission of BSE and four new cases of transmission of natural scrapie. Positive transmissions occurred with blood taken at pre-clinical and clinical stages of infection. Initial studies indicate that following such infection by the i.v. route, deposition of the abnormal prion protein isoform, PrPSc, in peripheral tissues may be much more limited than is seen following oral infection. These results confirm the risks of TSE infection via blood products and suggest that the measures taken to restrict the use of blood in the UK have been fully justified.


2020 ◽  
pp. 6109-6119
Author(s):  
Simon Mead ◽  
R.G. Will

Prion protein (for proteinacious infectious particle) is a membrane-associated glycoprotein present in all mammalian species. Its normal function is unknown, but in prion diseases (also known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies) a misfolded polymer form of the protein, partially resistant to protease digestion, is deposited in the brain and associated—typically after long incubation periods—with neuronal dysfunction and death. Prion diseases have become the subject of intense scientific and public interest because they are caused by a biologically distinct disease mechanism and because of the implications for public health following the identification of a new human prion disease, variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD), and the evidence that it is caused by the transmission to humans of a cattle prion disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Parobkova ◽  
Julie van der Zee ◽  
Lubina Dillen ◽  
Christine Van Broeckhoven ◽  
Robert Rusina ◽  
...  

Background: Sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (sCJD) is the most common type of a group of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (prion diseases). The etiology of the sporadic form of CJD is still unclear. sCJD can occur in combination with other neurodegenerative diseases, which further complicates the diagnosis. Alzheimer's disease (AD), e.g., is often seen in conjunction with sCJD.Method: In this study, we performed a systematic analysis of 15 genes related to the most important neurodegenerative diseases - AD, frontotemporal dementia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, prion disease, and Parkinson's disease - in a cohort of sCJD and sCJD in comorbidity with AD and primary age-related proteinopathy (PART). A total of 30 neuropathologically verified cases of sCJD with and without additional proteinopathies were included in the study. In addition, we compared microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT) haplotypes between sCJD patients and patients with sCJD and PART or sCJD and AD. Then we studied the interaction between the Apolipoprotein E gene (APOE) and PRNP in sCJD patients.Results: We did not find any causal mutations in the neurodegenerative disease genes. We did detect a p.E318G missense variant of uncertain significance (VUS) in PSEN1 in three patients. In PRNP, we also found a previously described non-pathogenic insertion (p.P84_Q91Q).Conclusion: Our pilot study failed to find any critical differences between pure sCJD and sCJD in conjunction with other comorbid neurodegenerative diseases. Further investigations are needed to better understand this phenomenon.


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