A virus may really result in the start of Alz-heimer's disease, according to a new study posted in Molecular Psychiatry. If it is indeed a virus, Alzhei-mer's might also be contagious. Such has been the suit in studies with mice. Source for this article: Alzheimer's disease may be contagious, study suggests

The spreading witnessed for Alzheimer's mice

The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, led by professor of neurology Dr. Claudio Soto, involved exposing lab mice to human brain tissue. The mice which were exposed to the tissue that came from Alzheimer's patients got the illness. Eventually their brains all went through the same transformation. Mice injected with the brain tissue of healthy humans didn't go on to manifest signs of the illness.

"Our findings open the possibility that some of the sporadic Alzheimer's cases may arise from an infectious process, similar to how mad cow disease arises from infection with dis-eased proteins called prions,” said Soto. “It involves a normal protein that becomes misshapen, and is able to spread by transforming good proteins to bad ones. The bad proteins accumulate in the brain, forming plaque deposits that are believed to kill neuron cells in Alz-heimer’s."

Soto and other researchers involved in the study admit that the results are very preliminary. People would not, under normal experiences, be exposed to brain tissue in the same way that these rats were while it is unclear if the same thing would even occur in individuals.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease helps

In order to see how Alzheimer’s may be contagious for humans, Soto and his team spent time looking into the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). CJD is a disease that destroys brain tissue. This is done slowly. Contaminated food, blood transfusions, tissue transplants and other surgery can be ways that it is spread. The disease may behave the same way. If this is the suit, then Alzheimer’s would decrease drastically with surgery precautions and blood screenings.

Until results of the study with rats could be corroborated, Soto indicates that people continue to keep away from well-known risk factors for Alzheimer's disease, like high blood pressure, smoking and weight gain.

"Environmental risk factors may still accelerate the disease or increase the risk, even in cases in which there is an infectious origin," Soto told CBS News. "Besides, it is likely that only a proportion of the cases may occur by transmission and many others may still be as-sociated to environmental risk factors."

Prions can't transfer in the air. That means there is no con-cern about being around Alzheimer’s sufferers right now. It’s okay to touch them. Continue to hug them.

"We know that there is no risk to family members of people with prion diseases," he told CBS News. "There are no cases of disease in relatives."

All about Alzheimer’s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wv9jrk-gXc

Articles cited

Alzheimer's disease Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer's_disease

CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20115519-10391704.html

MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44779621/ns/health-alzheimers_disease/#.Tox8...

My Health News Daily: http://www.myhealthnewsdaily.com/blood-test-creutzfeldt-jakob-disease-11...

University of Texas Health Science Center: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/uoth-uam100311.php