title: A French cluster of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: a molecular analysis.
abstract: We report the molecular and phenotypic analysis of a French cluster of three cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), two of them occurring in 1998 in the same village and the other in 1995 in a neighboring village. Analyses of the occurrence of these events in a close area with less than 3000 inhabitants over the 1992-1999 notification period confirmed that they are rare. This could be explained either by a common source of contamination or by the coincidental occurrence of either sporadic or genetic CJD. We applied genetic analysis and brain PrPres typing to explore these CJD cases. The three patients did not carry any mutation in their prion protein gene coding sequence. All were homozygous for methionine at the polymorphic codon 129. Brain tissue was available from two cases that died in 1998. The two patients showed different PrPres profiles on Western blot and distinct clinico-pathological features. These findings do not support the conclusion that in these three cases, CJD was acquired from a unique source of contamination and suggest that concurrent occurrence of sporadic CJD accounted for this CJD cluster.
authors.affiliation: Service de Biochimie et Biologie moléculaire, Centre de recherche Claude Bernard, Hôpital Lariboisière, Paris, France.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Beaudry
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Parchi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Peoc'h
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Desbordes
authors.forename: J-F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Dartigues
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vital
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vital
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Capellari
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gambetti
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Delasnerie-Lauprêtre
authors.forename: J Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Mary
authors.forename: J-L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Laplanche
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003062:Codon / Q000235:genetics; D007562:Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D005820:Genetic Testing; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008715:Methionine / Q000235:genetics; D008875:Middle Aged; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D018620:PrPSc Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D003062:Codon; D018620:PrPSc Proteins; D008715:Methionine