A untried cleaning lady in France grow a fatal brain disease almost eight years after she accidentally ignore her finger while handling computer mouse brains in a laboratory .
Her death was not cause by a bacteria , a fungus , a computer virus , aparasite , or some variety of chemical agent , but through exposure to prions : a misfolded infective protein that can trigger distinctive proteins in the brain to fold abnormally .
Reported in theNew England Journal of Medicine , the story begin in May 2010 when the 24 - yr - old was working in a enquiry laboratory in France where she handled frozen mouse brain that had been artificially pluck to contain a human prion protein . While working with the samples , she stabbed her thumb through a double couplet of latex mitt with a abrupt pair of forceps used to pick up the brain section . A few drops of profligate were produced , but the wound appeared to be fairly minor .
Then , in November 2017 , she initiate to feel an unusualburning painful sensation down her right shoulder and cervix . Over the undermentioned year , her symptom decline and she started experience depression , anxiety , forgetfulness , and even ocular hallucinations . Tragically , the patient died 19 months after the onset of symptom .
By analyse the patient’scerebrospinal fluid and blood , the doctors conclude she was suffering fromvariant Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease(vCJD ) , which was later on confirm during her post-mortem . This is a rare experimental condition that ’s because of a mysterious infectious broker get laid as a prion ( or proteinaceous infective particles ) .
Surprisinglylittle is knownabout prion disease , although scientists do know they arise whencertain proteins found on many types of cells begin to misfold in the brain . These misfolded prions can run amok by changing the shape of other neighboring protein , which go on to become misfolded prions , further spread the “ harm ” . Unlike other infective agentive role , such as bacterium , fungus kingdom , or a computer virus , they do not contain any deoxyribonucleic acid or its proportional RNA .
caseful of vCJD are exceptionally rarefied . Just a few hundred cases of vCJD have ever been confirm , the legal age of which we ’re linked to the BSE ( commonly known as “ brainsick cow disease ” ) outbreak that originate in the UK during the nineties and eighties . In most vCJD cases , humans acquire the misfolded prionsbyingesting brain tissuefrom animals infect with non - human prion disease . It was surmise that the woman could have eat contaminated beef from this UK crisis , although the case subject concludes the risk of infection of this is “ negligible or nonexistent ” give the timing of the illness .
last Sciencepoints out that the fellowship of the patient accused the lab where the chance event come of manslaughter . Gallic metier reportsfrom 2019 say the kin reason the safety measures at the laboratory " were not up to standard " and she should have been provide with " cut - insubordinate glove " not just latex glove .
The raw grammatical case study concludes by saying : " Such cases highlight the need for advance in the prevention of transmitting of variant CJD [ vCJD ] and other prion that can affect world in the laboratory and neurosurgery background . "
