A new form of dementia linked to the brain disease CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) has emerged in the United States, affecting sixteen and killing ten.
Image: Scalpel. Credit: Aesop/flickr
The ten died after losing control of their mental and motor functions and, according to a report in the New Scientist, being unable to think, speak or move.
The dementia type is linked to the human variant of the disease seen in BSE, or 'mad cow disease' and the scientist who published a paper revealing it has said the type may have been around for many years.
Dr. Pierluigi Gambetti, director of the U.S. National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Centre in Ohio, said that he believed the newly discovered type, known as PSPr, had probably "been around for years, unnoticed," adding that while the cause was unproven, patients had links to family members who had dementia, which suggested a genetic cause.
The BBC reports that British specialists are examining cases of "sporadic CJD" -- cases not connected to the human form of mad cow disease contracted through consuming contaminated brain tissue -- for any of the newly discovered version.
"What is interesting about this is that it may mean there are other genes out there waiting to be found which are associated with prion disease, and looking at these patients in the US could help find them," said Dr. Mark Head, from the UK's National CJD Surveillance Unit.
Gambetti's paper on the new form of the disease is published in volume 63 of the Annals of Neurology.
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