Orru CD et al. 2017, Prion seeding activity and infectivity in skin samples from patients with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (Sci Transl Med 9(417):eaam7785, PMID 29167394, doi 10.1126/scitranslmed.aam7785)

Key facts

• Citation: Sci Transl Med 2017, volume 9, issue 417, article eaam7785; published 22 November 2017 per PubMed (online 1 November 2017 per Europe PMC); PMID 29167394, PMCID PMC5744860.
• Skin from 38 people was studied: 21 sporadic CJD, 2 variant CJD and 15 without CJD.
• Western blot found abnormal prion protein in skin of only two of seven CJD cases, whereas RT-QuIC, tested blinded, was positive in skin of all 23 CJD decedents and in none of the non-CJD controls.
• Skin held roughly 1,000 to 100,000 times less seeding activity than brain.
• Skin from two sporadic CJD cases (subtypes MM2 and VV1) given to humanized transgenic mice caused prion disease in all 12 animals within 564 days; mice given control skin stayed healthy.
• Skin near the ear was the most consistently positive site, about 94 percent of sporadic CJD cases, and no single site was always positive.
• The authors state the work gives no evidence of spread through casual contact, note the mouse test used direct brain inoculation of large extracts, and call for study of extra precautions in non-brain surgery when instruments are reused.
• Authors included Christina Orru and Byron Caughey (NIAID) and Wen-Quan Zou, Brian Appleby, Qingzhong Kong and colleagues at Case Western Reserve University, with coauthors from China and the Edinburgh national CJD unit.
• Funding listed includes the CJD Foundation, NIH grants, NIAID intramural funds, the MRC and CDC.

Timeline

1. 2017Paper published online.
2. 2017Issue date given by PubMed (volume 9, issue 417).