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In Denmark, a woman recently died of a rare form of dementia contracted five decades after being infected by her baby while she was pregnant.
The seventy-year-old woman died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease a rare but fatal brain condition caused by an infectious protein called a prion. Although apparently he has never undergone a modification of his genes, his son was born with the mutant gene responsible for the production of the prion, inherited from his father died there are years.
"A very sad story"
Doctors think that, most certainly, the woman was infected with this disease during pregnancy because the fetal cells carrying the toxic protein pbaded through the placenta to reach her brain. 19659005] Illustrative picture "/>
Ausrine Areskeviciute, a researcher at the Danish Reference Center for Prion Diseases at the University Hospital Copenhagen, explained – in statements to The Times – that, when a woman is pregnant, "the Baby cells cross the placenta all over his body and can reach various organs. "
The son of the deceased is still alive, but, according to Areskeviciute, he" already has symptoms "of the disease. "There is no treatment and the prognosis is not good ," lamented the researcher, concluding that "it is a very sad story".
The case was published in the Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental. Neurology
