Magnetic resonance imaging show a decline of plasma proteins in the brain, resulting from Creutzfeldt-Jakob’s disease
Creutzfeldt-Jakob’s disease is an extremely rare and fatal disease that causes the wear and tear and formation of holes in our brains-it is a human version of the famous “crazy cow’s disease”.
A Creutzfeldt-Jakob’s disease (DCJ), so called in honor of Hans Creutzfeldt and Alfons Jakob, two German doctors who first described the disease in the 1920s, annually affects around 1 in every million people around the world.
The DCJ is caused by abnormal proteins in the brain known as “Prinions”.
These prions cause irreversible damage to tissues, leading to the formation of holes similar to sponges throughout the brainwhich cause malfunction and death of neurons.
The prions trigger a chain reaction, leading to other normal brain proteins to bend incorrectly. This perpetuates the disease and causes patients to have progressively worse problems with movement and mental function.
As an article explained to the disease, There are three types Main from DCJ, which differ according to the way the prions originate in the brain.
The most common of these forms is the “DCJ Sporate”which represents about 85% of cases; and occurs when normal proteins bend spontaneously and turn into prinions for Unknown reasons.
Then, between 10% and 15% of cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease are caused for a mutation in a gene called PRNPwhich leads to the development of prinions. This genetic form of the DCJ is inherited in an autosomal manner dominant, which means that a child only needs to inherit a copy of the defective gene from one parent to develop the disease.
Less than 1% of DCJ cases are “infectious”which means that they are triggered by the transmission of prions from external sources.
One way to happen is when people eat cow meat with – commonly known as “Crazy Cow Disease”.
From a Discovered in 1996 That people could contract Creutzfeldt-Jakob’s disease through the “crazy cows”, only 233 cases were recorded worldwide.
Another form of transmission of the DCJ is when it accidentally moves from human to human during medical procedures – for example, if a patient receives a transplant or blood transfusion from a Dador with DCJ.
Live Science gives the example situations that occurred between the late 1950s and 1985s, when doctors gave several contaminated growth hormones derived from corpses. This has led to at least 226 DCJ cases around the world.
A fatal disease
The most common symptoms of the DCJ are: dementia, confusion and disorientation, hallucinations, lack of coordination and muscle stiffness.
Patients can also present Personality changes, drowsiness, seizures and speech problems; in addition to psychological symptoms, such as severe depression, anxiety and irritability.
DCJ symptoms progress quickly to the point where patients are fully bedriddenwithout awareness of what surrounds them and unable to communicate.
A DCJ is always fatal And about 70% of patients die within one year after diagnosis, most often due to an infection, heart or pulmonary failure. However, there are medications that help alleviate the symptoms of the patient.
Men and women are as likely to develop the disease.
