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I thought CJD was caused by a prion. Was it in the growth hormone prep from the cadavers?


From the article:

> In the interim, scientists had discovered that that type of hormone treatment they got could unwittingly transfer bits of protein into recipients’ brains. In some cases, it had induced a fatal brain disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD — a finding that led to the banning of the procedure 40 years ago.


Yeah that's correct. The article mentions a few cases of people who died from transmitted CJD that may have also received some beta amyloid or tau proteins that could have catalyzed development into Alzheimer's if only they didn't die from CJD, which seems to develop more quickly through that route. If Alzheimer's is truly is some kind of prion-related disease, which the research is suggesting.


there's transmissible CJD, but most cases are a genetic version where you get the prions from your own cells and then it cascades, if I recall




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