Diagnosis Can Improve Treatment, Protect Caregivers
Researchers have developed a test that accurately identifies Parkinson’s disease by examining a skin sample. This development is both good news and bad news.
The good news is that a simple skin biopsy can accurately detect alpha-synuclein–a toxic protein–in our body, which can lead to earlier intervention and improved disease management, but not a cure. The new skin test is described as a test for Parkinson’s disease, but the test can’t distinguish between Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease or other forms of prion disease. Once the toxic protein is identified, a neurologist will assess which symptoms the patient is experiencing. Memory issues will generate a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Movement disorders will generate a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. If a patient is experiencing both issues at a more severe level, the doctor might diagnose the issue as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).
The bad news is that the highly infectious protein behind many forms of neurodegenerative disease is in skin, which can transmit neurodegenerative disease to humans and other mammals.
Unfortunately, once infected, prions spread throughout the entire body, including cell tissue and bodily fluids. As such, people who have prion disease are highly infectious. The truth is that people who have prion disease are infecting the world around them every day. Adding to the bad news is that researchers, government and industry are in denial (a polite word) about the transmissibility of prion disease.
A variety of factors can trigger neurodegenerative disease, including genetics, head trauma and poor nutrition. Today, however, the greatest factor behind the explosive growth is a neurotoxin that is spreading through our food, water, health systems and beyond. Misinformation, disinformation, corruption and collusion are compounding the threat.
The denial is understandable because there isn’t a solution for this existential threat. Neurodegenerative disease is now the fastest-growing cause of death on the planet.
Prion Research Earns Nobel Prize
Dr. Stanley Prusiner, an American neuroscientist from the University of California at San Francisco, earned a Nobel Prize in 1997 for discovering and characterizing prions and deadly prion disease. He also coined the term “prion” as a contraction of the term “proteinaceous infectious particle.” In fact, the scientific term for prion disease is “transmissible spongiform encephalopathy.” The operative word is “transmissible.”
President Obama awarded Prusiner the National Medal of Science in 2010 to recognize the importance of his research. Unfortunately, much of his research is being ignored. Prion theory is extremely simple. All that we must know is that prions + pathways = victims. Suppression of the truth also adds to the gravity of the equation.
In June 2012, Prusiner confirmed that Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease and even ALS are prion diseases. Other prion diseases include Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in people, mad cow disease in livestock and chronic wasting disease (CWD) in wildlife. The variations in disease progression could be due to genetics in the patients or mutations in the prion, not different diseases entirely.
“This shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that amyloid beta and tau are both prions, and that Alzheimer’s disease is a double-prion disorder in which these two rogue proteins together destroy the brain,” said Stanley Prusiner, MD, the study’s senior author and director of the UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, part of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences. “The fact that prion levels also appear linked to patient longevity should change how we think about the way forward for developing treatments for the disease. We need a sea change in Alzheimer’s disease research, and that is what this paper does. This paper might catalyze a major change in AD research.”
In 2019, Dr. Stanley Prusiner further confirmed that Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease are forms of prion disease. Prusiner confirmed that alpha-synuclein and tau are forms of prion, a deadly and unstoppable protein that migrates, mutates and multiplies. Autopsies have confirmed that skin samples from patients with prion disease are infectious. In fact, research suggests that skin is even more infectious as the disease progresses.
In the initial phase of prion research, prions could only be seen in the brain during autopsy. Today, researchers can detect these proteins in spinal fluid, blood and skin. If they admit the truth, they can test saliva, mucus and more. Prions infect the entire body. Risk-free prion exposure is a myth. Prions migrate, mutate and multiply as they move up the food chain.
Unfortunately, family and caregivers are not the only ones who need the truth to protect themselves from prion transmission. In addition to the risks of social interaction, people with prion disease infect the world around them in many ways. A blood donation. An organ donation. Even a sneeze or a cough is a biohazard. Items contaminated by a person with prion disease (cups, utensils, telephones, door knobs, etc.) cannot be sterilized. Once contaminated they are forever contaminated.
The largest prion pathway in the world is sewage, which is being foolishly recycled in many ways. Industry is reclaiming millions of gallons of wastewater for irrigation and drinking water. Farmers, ranchers, golf courses, gardeners and miners are dumping tons of sewage sludge (biosolids) on open land because it is a free form of fertilizer. In fact, most are paid to allow the dumping on their land. Unfortunately, wastewater treatment plants can’t stop infective prions, so sewage sludge is better defined as infectious waste. This reckless policy has created a public health disaster across North America and we have encouraged nations around the world to spread biosolids far and wide. In addition to prion contamination, wastewater treatment plants can’t stop “forever chemicals.” Sewage sludge/biosolids and reclaimed wastewater are serving as distributors of biohazards. The concept of homeland defense should apply to all threats–foreign and domestic.
The US EPA launched this misguided dumping program with fraudulent risk assessments. After decades of lies, deceit and death, the agency has backed away from the risk assessment that allows for the dumping of this infectious waste. The EPA admits that the original risk assessment was incomplete and failed to analyze several toxins and neurotoxins commonly found in treated sewage. Without a credible risk assessment in place, the dumping of toxic sewage sludge on open land is illegal. It is bioterrorism. Meanwhile, it continues across the US and around the world. Most nations that dump toxic sewage sludge on land have had incidents of mad cow disease in livestock and chronic wasting disease in wildlife.
One of the leading prion researchers in the world, Claudio Soto, PhD, professor of neurology at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston, and his colleagues confirmed the presence of prions in urine. So have others.
“Our findings open the possibility that some neurodegenerative disease cases may arise from an infectious process, which occurs with other neurological diseases such as mad cow disease and its human form, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,” said Soto. “The underlying mechanism of Alzheimer’s disease is very similar to the prion diseases. It involves a normal protein that becomes misshapen and is able to spread by transforming good proteins to bad ones. The bad proteins accumulate in the brain, forming plaque deposits (and inflammation), which kill neurons.”
Despite these profound findings about prion disease and prion pathways, researchers claim that the detection of infectious prions in skin samples is not a threat to public health. These frauds recommend studying the threat to death. No prion pathway is safe.
“This certainly lends itself to asking new scientific questions,” said James Galvin, director of the Comprehensive Center for Brain Health at the University of Miami Health System.”Proteins involved in brain disease, such as prion protein in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and bovine spongiform encephalopathy, are transmissible.”
The Skin Test For Prion Disease
Prions in skin could serve as a useful biomarker for preclinical diagnosis of prion diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The Syn-One test is marketed for Parkinson’s disease, but it will detect the same protein in people with other forms of prion disease. The only difference is which region of the brain is under immediate attack. That is why a clinician must interpret the test results. Only when a person has the cardinal motor symptoms of Parkinson’s — slowness plus tremor or stiffness — can a diagnosis be made. If the presenting symptom is memory, a doctor could make a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. If the presenting symptoms are severe on all scales, it’s probably CJD. That’s about as scientific as it gets with neurodegenerative disease.
Meanwhile, Eli Lilly is seeking FDA approval for a blood test for Alzheimer’s disease that will screen blood for these deadly proteins. Again, this development confirms the presence of these proteins in the body and the failure to protect public health from prion pathways.
Unfortunately, there aren’t any screens to prevent a person with prion disease from donating blood to an unsuspecting public. Most neurologists and health care professionals are aware of the prion threat. They are taking precautions to protect themselves and their facilities from prion contamination, but they are not protecting the public. It is criminal.
Unfortunately, there is no cure for prion disease, but an early diagnosis can generate truth. An early diagnosis can improve treatment and it can help prevent the spread of the disease to family, friends and caregivers.
If you or someone that you know has Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, please take the appropriate precautions to minimize the risk of disease transmission. Please defend yourself and others. Dental and medical equipment cannot be sterilized. Please don’t donate blood if you have neurodegenerative disease. If you need a blood transfusion, proceed with caution. Blood banks don’t screen for prion disease.
Learn more about the skin test for Parkinson’s disease in JAMA.
