Mad cow disease can also be transmitted through air: Study
January 14th, 2011 - 2:43 pm ICT by ANIWashington, Jan 14 (ANI): University of Zurich researchers have discovered that prions - the infectious proteins that cause mad cow disease and its human version Creutzfeldt-Jakob disorder - could also be transmitted through the air.
The surprising finding will likely mean a whole new push of precautionary measures for scientific labs, slaughterhouses and animal feed plants.
Until now, it was assumed that prions could be transmitted by consuming food made from BSE-infected cows, through contaminated surgical instruments or blood transfusions but were not generally considered to be airborne like many viruses.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is characterized by a progressive and invariably lethal breakdown of brain cells.
In the new study, Adriano Aguzzi and his team exposed mice to aerosols containing prions. Unexpectedly, it was found that inhalation of prion-tainted aerosols induced disease with frightening speed.
Exposure to the aerosols for just one minute was sufficient to infect all the mice.
The researchers noted that the longer the exposure, the shorter the incubation time in the recipient mice, after which they developed the clinical signs of a prion disease.
Surprisingly, the prions appeared to transfer from the airways and colonize the brain directly, since immune system defects - known to prevent the passage of prions from the digestive tract to the brain - did not prevent infection.
The precautionary measures against prion infections have not typically included stringent protection against aerosols.
Aguzzi recommended precautionary measures to minimize the risk of a prion infection but also emphasized that the findings stem from the laboratory conditions and that Creutzfeldt-Jakob patients do not exhale prions.
The findings are published in the journal PLoS Pathogens. (ANI)
- Infectious prions can suddenly erupt from normal brain tissue - Jul 27, 2010
- Healthy prion proteins protect nerve cells - Jan 25, 2010
- Fatal brain disease spreads in Britain - Mar 30, 2011
- How misfolded protein spreads from cell to cell, potentially spreading disease - Feb 19, 2011
- Fast, accurate test to diagnose CJD developed - Jan 31, 2011
- Brain-eating ritual in tribes trigger striking example of rapid human evolution - Nov 19, 2009
- Species barrier may protect humans eating deer, elk from chronic wasting disease - Jul 31, 2009
- New biomarker for fatal brain disease identified - Mar 10, 2011
- Scientists unravel evolutionary origins of prion disease gene - Sep 29, 2009
- Farmed fish may transmit mad cow disease - Jun 17, 2009
- Eye tests of cattle may help detect mad cow disease - Jun 03, 2010
- Imbalance of iron linked to prion disease-related neuronal demise - Mar 15, 2009
- A breakthrough in Alzhemier's or Parkinson's treatment? - May 07, 2012
- Mad cow case detected in US - Apr 25, 2012
- Mad-Cow disease protein also aids in sense of smell - Dec 22, 2008
Tags: aerosols, animal feed, blood transfusions, brain cells, clinical signs, creutzfeldt jakob disease, digestive tract, feed plants, incubation time, infectious proteins, inhalation, laboratory conditions, mad cow disease, precautionary measures, prion disease, prions, scientific labs, slaughterhouses, surgical instruments, university of zurich