title: Transmission studies from blood of Alzheimer disease patients and healthy relatives.
abstract: The etiology of Alzheimer disease (AD) is unknown. To investigate the transmissibility of AD, the buffy coat of the blood from 11 relatives of AD patients, including 2 with suspicious or early signs of AD, was inoculated intracerebrally into hamsters. In these pilot experiments, 5 individuals produced histologically documented spongiform encephalopathy on primary passage in recipient hamsters. Material from 3 of these positives was serially transmitted in a second passage. The histological alterations observed in the brains of positive hamsters were similar to those seen in experimental Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). These transmission results raise the intriguing possibility that CJD-like agents may be involved in at least some forms of AD.
authors.affiliation: Section of Neuropathology, Yale University, School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510.
authors.forename: E E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Manuelidis
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: de Figueiredo
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: W W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Fritch
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Manuelidis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics / Q000635:transmission*; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D006224:Cricetinae; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007267:Injections; D008297:Male; D008647:Mesocricetus; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects