According to new research, five individuals treated with cadaver-derived human growth hormone (c-hGH) as youngsters experienced dementia symptoms between the ages of 36 and 55.
According to the first study of its kind, growth hormone extracted from the brains of deceased people may have given rise to a rogue protein that causes this type of dementia in the affected individuals.
According to the experts, since growth hormone administered to youngsters is now produced synthetically, there is no longer a risk to the public’s health and Alzheimer’s disease itself is not contagious.
Between 1959 and 1985, at least 1,848 individuals in the UK received treatments using cadaver-derived human growth hormone (c-hGH), usually for height enhancement. The pituitary gland at the base of the brain produces growth hormone.
It was removed after it was discovered that certain batches contained infectious prion proteins that, in certain cases, led to the degenerative brain illness CJD.
Physicians have now made available the clinical information for eight patients who were sent to University College London Hospital’s National Prion Clinic. As per the findings published in the journal Nature Medicine, all of them had received treatment with c-hGH during their childhood, frequently for a number of years.
One person had minor cognitive impairment, while five others showed dementia symptoms. Their symptoms began while they were between the ages of 38 and 55.
According to the researchers, their remarkably youthful ages indicate they did not have the type of “sporadic” Alzheimer’s disease commonly seen in older adults. Additionally, genetic tests ruled out the disease’s inherited type.
The study’s principal investigator, Professor John Collinge, who also serves as director of the University College London Institute of Prion Diseases, speculated that the hormone injections may have given each patient an infection with the Alzheimer’s-causing amyloid-beta protein.
Promotion
“The patients we have described were given a specific and long-discontinued medical treatment which involved injecting patients with material now known to have been contaminated with disease-related proteins,” he stated.
“There is no suggestion whatsoever that Alzheimer’s disease can be transmitted between individuals during activities of daily life or routine medical care.”
