Many people who developed Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease after receiving grafts of brain tissue had an in-built susceptibility to the disorder, according to a leading American researcher. Lev Goldfarb of the US National Institutes of Health told a meeting last week at the Royal Society that the majority of these people had a genetic trait that predisposed them to the disease.
This trait is also present in most people who develop Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) spontaneously. Researchers now say it is highly likely that their disease is triggered by a fault in the brain rather than an infection.
CJD is a rare, fatal form of dementia related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease. In Britain there are about 50 new cases a year. In a small number of families CJD is inherited but, until recent years, most cases developed for reasons that were unclear.
The BSE epidemic raised fears that ...
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