The fetus "kills" his mother after having infected with a rare disease

A woman died of a rare neurological disease infected by her son while it was only a fetus while she was pregnant with it several decades ago.

The fetus transmitted to his mother the rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which took all these years to develop.

The adult now is born with a rare genetic mutation causing brain damage that results in decreased mental functions and movements.

The man inherited the pathology of his father, who died years ago. However, what surprised the doctors is that the woman, who died at age 70, apparently did not undergo a genetic modification but died in the same way.

The specialists concluded that the mother had been infected with the disease because of her son during pregnancy, because the fetal cells had moved to the placenta and had crossed the body to reach her brain.

The doctor and researcher at Copenahague University Hospital, Ausrine Arekeviciute, explained that when women are pregnant, the fetal cells cross the placenta and reach various organs of the mother.

Today, the son is still alive, although affected by the disease.

It is precisely the medical diagnosis of the son that led the doctors to think that his mother, who did not carry the genetic mutation associated with the disease, could have been infected by her own son.

"There is no treatment and the prognosis is not good," said Dr. Ausrine Arekeviciute. "It's a sad story," he said. The case was published in the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease can occur spontaneously, be inherited or be transmitted by contact with infected tissues, for example during a transplant or by consuming contaminated meat.

TEXT: RODRIGO GONZÁLEZ