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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 woman, aged seventy, died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,a rare but deadly brain disease caused by an infectious protein called a prion. Although apparently he has never undergone any alteration of his genes, his son was born with the mutant gene responsible for prion production, inherited from his father, who died years ago.
"A very sad story"
Doctors consider that, almost certainly, the woman was infected by this disease by her baby during pregnancy, because the fetal cells containing the toxic protein have crossed the placenta until reaching her brain.
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's cells go through the placenta, his body, and they can reach various organs. "
The son of the deceased is still alive, but, according to Areskeviciute, "already shows the symptoms" of the disease. "There are no treatments 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.
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