Hallmark Alzheimer’s protein may have been passed between people in historic growth hormone treatments

A study published today by London researchers has revealed evidence that the hallmark Alzheimer’s protein, amyloid, may have been passed to a small number of people through human-derived growth hormone treatments given before the mid-1980s. The research suggests that amyloid, which builds up in the brain in Alzheimer’s, could be transmitted through contaminated brain tissue extracts in a similar way to the prion protein responsible for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). The findings are published on 9 September in the journal Nature and funded by the NIHR UCL/UCLH Biomedical Research Unit and the Medical Research Council