Second death in France in a laboratory working on prions
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease has killed a person who handled this infectious agent at Inrae in Toulouse. After a first death in 2019, a moratorium on work on this pathogen has been extended.
By Hervé Morin
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease killed a few days ago a retired research technician from the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (Inrae), who had worked in Toulouse in contact of biological tissue infected with prions. This death sows consternation and concern in the scientific community working with these infectious agents. It follows the death, on June 17, 2019, of Emilie Jaumain, a 33-year-old laboratory technician, suffering from the same incurable neurodegenerative disease. The young woman is said to have contracted it in 2010, cutting herself while handling fragments of the brains of mice infected with prions, in another unit of INRAE, in Jouy-en-Josas.
Computer representation of part of a prion protein on a light micrograph of pyramidal nerve cells (neurons, in black) in the cerebellum of the brain. ALFRED PASIEKA / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Regarding the retiree from Toulouse, it will be necessary to determine whether she was the victim of a genetic or sporadic form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, if the disease may have been caused by the ingestion of meat contaminated by the agent of encephalopathy. bovine spongiform (BSE, also called mad cow disease) or, as in the case of Emilie Jaumain, if accidental occupational exposure can be claimed. Prion diseases are caused by proteins taking an aberrant conformation, which gives them the property of replicating to form aggregates that are deleterious for neurons. There are around 150 cases per year in France, resulting in fatal degeneration of the central nervous system.
Temporary suspension of work on prions in French public research laboratories
PRESS RELEASE - The general directorates of ANSES, CEA, CNRS, INRAE and Inserm, have decided jointly and in agreement with the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation to suspend as a precaution all their research and experimentation work relating to prion diseases, for a period of three months.
This precautionary measure is motivated by the knowledge of a possible new case of a person suffering from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and who worked in a laboratory for research on prions.
Posted on July 27, 2021
The suspension period put in place as of this day will make it possible to study the possibility of a link between the observed case and the person's former professional activity and to adapt, if necessary, the preventive measures in force in the research laboratories.
The person with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)1, whose form is not yet known, is a retired INRAE agent. This could be the second case of infectious CJD affecting a scientist who worked on prions, after that of an assistant engineer who died of the disease in 2019, and who was injured in 2010 during of an experiment.
Following this death, a general inspection mission was launched in July 2019 by the ministries of research and agriculture with French laboratories handling prions. Submitted in October 2020, the report concluded on the regulatory compliance of the laboratories visited as well as the presence of a risk control culture within the research teams.
Research around prion proteins, with high public health issues, allows major advances in the understanding of the functioning of these infectious pathogens, and contributes to results that are transferable to other related degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Alzheimer's diseases. Parkinson's.
At the level of each establishment, regular and transparent information will be provided to all the working communities concerned by this measure.
1 The disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is one of prion diseases - still called encephalopathies subacute spongiform transmitted(TSE) - of diseases rare, characterized by a degeneration rapid and fatal the system nervous central. They are caused by the accumulation in the brain of a normally expressed protein but poorly conformed - the prion protein - which leads to the formation of deleterious aggregates for neurons. For now , no treatment will allow to change the course of these diseases. It can be of origin sporadic , form the most frequent , original genetic or finally to form infectious following a contamination.
France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes two lab workers
By Barbara CasassusJul. 28, 2021 , 4:35 AM
PARIS—Five public research institutions in France have imposed a 3-month moratorium on the study of prions—a class of misfolding, infectious proteins that cause fatal brain diseases—after a retired lab worker who handled prions in the past was diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), the most common prion disease in humans. An investigation is underway to find out whether the patient, who worked at a lab run by the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), contracted the disease on the job.
If so, it would be the second such case in France in the past few years. In June 2019, an INRAE lab worker named Émilie Jaumain died at age 33, 10 years after pricking her thumb during an experiment with prion-infected mice. Her family is now suing INRAE for manslaughter and endangering life; her illness had already led to tightened safety measures at French prion labs.
The aim of the moratorium, which affects nine labs, is to “study the possibility of a link with the [new patient’s] former professional activity and if necessary to adapt the preventative measures in force in research laboratories,” according to a joint press release issued by the five institutions yesterday.
“This is the right way to go in the circumstances,” says Ronald Melki, a structural biologist at a prion lab jointly operated by the French national research agency CNRS and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). “It is always wise to ask questions about the whole working process when something goes wrong.” "The occurrence of these harsh diseases in two of our scientific colleagues clearly affects the whole prion community, which is a small 'familial' community of less than 1000 people worldwide," Emmanuel Comoy, deputy director of CEA's Unit of Prion Disorders and Related Infectious Agents, writes in an email to Science. Although prion research already has strict safety protocols, "it necessarily reinforces the awareness of the risk linked to these infectious agents," he says.
In Jaumain’s case, there is little doubt she was infected on the job, according to a paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in 2020. She had variant CJD (vCJD), a form typically caused by eating beef contaminated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. But Europe’s BSE outbreak ended after 2000 and vCJD virtually disappeared; the chance that someone of Jaumain’s age in France would contract food-borne vCJD is “negligible or non-existent,” according to the paper.
A scientist with inside knowledge says the new patient, a woman who worked at INRAE’s Host-Pathogen Interactions and Immunity group in Toulouse, is still alive. French authorities were apparently alerted to her diagnosis late last week. The press release suggests it’s not yet clear whether the new case is vCJD or “classic” CJD, which is not known to be caused by prions from animals. Classic CJD strikes an estimated one person per million. Some 80% of cases are sporadic, meaning they have no known cause, but others are genetic or contracted from infected human tissues during transplantations. The two types of CJD can only be distinguished through a postmortem examination of brain tissue.
Lab infections are known to occur with many pathogens, but exposure to CJD-causing prions is unusually risky because there are no vaccines or treatments and the condition is universally fatal. And whereas most infections reveal themselves within days or weeks, CJD’s average incubation period is about 10 years.
For Jaumain, who worked at INRAE’s Molecular Virology and Immunology Unit in Jouy-en-Josas, outside Paris, that long period of uncertainty began on 31 May 2010, when she stabbed her left thumb with a curved forceps while cleaning a cryostat—a machine that can cut tissues at very low temperatures—that she used to slice brain sections from transgenic mice infected with a sheep-adapted form of BSE. She pierced two layers of latex gloves and drew blood. “Émilie started worrying about the accident as soon as it had happened, and mentioned it to every doctor she saw,” says her widower, Armel Houel.
In November 2017, Jaumain developed a burning pain in her right shoulder and neck that worsened and spread to the right half of her body over the following 6 months, according to the NEJM paper. In January 2019, she became depressed and anxious, suffering memory impairment and hallucinations. “It was a descent into hell,” Houel says. She was diagnosed with “probable vCJD” in mid-March of that year and died 3 months later. A postmortem confirmed the diagnosis.
“The occurrence of these harsh diseases in two of our scientific colleagues clearly affects the whole prion community.” Emmanuel Comoy, French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission
INRAE only recently admitted the likely link between Jaumain’s illness and the accident. “We recognize, without ambiguity, the hypothesis of a correlation between Emilie Jaumain-Houel’s accident … and her infection with vCJD,” INRAE chair and CEO Philippe Mauguin wrote in a 24 June letter to an association created by friends and colleagues to publicize Jaumain’s case and lobby for improvements in lab safety. (Science has obtained a copy of the letter, which has not been made public.)
Jaumain’s family has filed both criminal charges and an administrative suit against INRAE, alleging a range of problems at Jaumain’s lab. She had not been trained in handling dangerous prions or responding to accidents and did not wear both metal mesh and surgical gloves, as she was supposed to, says Julien Bensimhon, the family’s lawyer. The thumb should have been soaked in a bleach solution immediately, which did not happen, Bensimhon adds.
Independent reports by a company specializing in occupational safety and by government inspectors have found no safety violations at the lab; one of them said there was a “strong culture” of risk management. (Bensimhon calls the reports “biased.”)
The government inspectors’ report concluded that Jaumain’s accident was not unique, however. There had been at least 17 accidents among the 100 or so scientists and technicians in France working with prions in the previous decade, five of whom stabbed or cut themselves with contaminated syringes or blades. Another technician at the same lab had a fingerprick accident with prions in 2005, but has not developed vCJD symptoms so far, Bensimhon says. “It is shocking that no precautionary measures were taken then to ensure such an accident never happened again,” he says.
In Italy, too, the last person to die of vCJD, in 2016, was a lab worker with exposure to prion-infected brain tissue, according to last year’s NEJM paper, although an investigation did not find evidence of a lab accident. That patient and the lab they worked at have not been identified.
After Jaumain’s diagnosis, “We contacted all the research prion labs in France to suggest they check their safety procedures and remind staff about the importance of respecting them,” says Stéphane Haïk, a neuroscientist at the Paris Brain Institute at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital who helped diagnose Jaumain and is the corresponding author on the paper. Many labs tightened procedures, according to the government inspectors' report, for instance by introducing plastic scissors and scalpels, which are disposable and less sharp, and bite and cut-resistant gloves. A team of experts from the five research agencies is due to submit proposals for a guide to good practice in prion research to the French government at the end of this year.
The scientific community has long recognized that handling prions is dangerous and an occupational risk for neuropathologists, says neuropathologist Adriano Aguzzi of the University of Zurich. Aguzzi declined to comment on the French CJD cases, but told Science his lab never handles human or bovine prions for research purposes, only for diagnostics. “We conduct research only on mouse-adapted sheep prions, which have never been shown to be infectious to humans,” Aguzzi says. In a 2011 paper, his team reported that prions can spread through aerosols, at least in mice, which “may warrant re-thinking on prion biosafety guidelines in research and diagnostic laboratories,” they wrote. Aguzzi says he was “totally shocked” by the finding and introduced safety measures to prevent aerosol spread at his own lab, but the paper drew little attention elsewhere.
The moratorium will "obviously" cause delays in research, but given the very long incubation periods in prion diseases, the impact of a 3-month hiatus will be limited, Comoy says. His research team at CEA also works on other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, and will shift some of its efforts to those.
Although Jaumain’s diagnosis upset many in the field, it hasn't led to an exodus among researchers in France, Haïk says: “I know of only one person who resigned because they were so worried.”
With reporting by Martin Enserink.
Posted in: EuropeHealthScientific Community
doi:10.1126/science.abl6587
Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob Disease Diagnosed 7.5 Years after Occupational Exposure
Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease was identified in a technician who had cut her thumb while handling brain sections of mice infected with adapted BSE 7.5 years earlier. The long incubation period was similar to that of the transfusion-transmitted form of the disease.
Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob Disease Diagnosed 7.5 Years after Occupational Exposure
TO THE EDITOR:
We report a case of variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) that was plausibly related to accidental occupational exposure in a technician who had handled murine samples contaminated with the agent that causes bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) 7.5 years earlier.
In May 2010, when the patient was 24 years of age, she worked in a prion research laboratory, where she handled frozen sections of brain of transgenic mice that overexpressed the human prion protein with methionine at codon 129. The mice had been infected with a sheep-adapted form of BSE. During this process, she stabbed her thumb through a double pair of latex gloves with the sharp ends of a curved forceps used to handle the samples. Bleeding was noted at the puncture site.
In November 2017, she began having burning pain in the right shoulder and neck. The pain worsened and spread to the right half of her body during the following 6 months. In November 2018, an examination of a sample of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) obtained from the patient was normal. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain showed a slight increase in the fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) signal in the caudates and thalami (Fig. S1A and S1B in the Supplementary Appendix, available with the full text of this letter at NEJM.org). In January 2019, she became depressed and anxious and had memory impairment and visual hallucinations. There was hypertonia on the right side of her body. At that time, an analysis of CSF for 14-3-3 protein was negative. In March 2019, MRI showed an increased FLAIR signal in pulvinar and dorsomedial nuclei of thalami (Fig. S1C through S1E).
Figure 1.
Detection of Abnormal Prion Protein in Biologic Fluid Samples and Postmortem Findings.
The patient was found to be homozygous for methionine at codon 129 of the prion protein gene without mutation. An analysis of a sample of CSF on real-time quaking-induced conversion analysis was negative for a diagnosis of sporadic CJD. However, an analysis of plasma and CSF by means of protein misfolding cyclic amplification was positive for the diagnosis of variant CJD (Figure 1A and 1B). The patient died 19 months after the onset of symptoms. Neuropathological examination confirmed the diagnosis of variant CJD (Figure 1C and 1D). Western blot analysis showed the presence of type 2B protease-resistant prion protein in all sampled brain areas. The clinical characteristics of the patient and the postmortem neuropathological features were similar to those observed in 27 patients with variant CJD who had previously been reported in France.1 (Additional details are provided in the Supplementary Appendix.)
There are two potential explanations for this patient’s condition. Oral transmission from contaminated cattle products cannot be ruled out because the patient was born at the beginning of the French BSE outbreak in cattle. However, the last two patients who had confirmed variant CJD with methionine homozygosity at codon 129 in France and the United Kingdom died in 2014 and 2013, respectively, which makes oral transmission unlikely. In France, the risk of variant CJD in 2019 was negligible or nonexistent in the post-1969 birth cohort.2
Percutaneous exposure to prion-contaminated material is plausible in this patient, since the prion strain that she had handled was consistent with the development of variant CJD.3 The 7.5-year delay between the laboratory accident and her clinical symptoms is congruent with the incubation period in the transfusion-transmitted form of the disease. The ability of this strain to propagate through the peripheral route has been documented, and experimental studies with scrapie strains have shown that scarification and subcutaneous inoculation are effective routes.4,5 The last known Italian patient with variant CJD, who died in 2016, had had occupational contact with BSE-infected brain tissues, although subsequent investigation did not disclose a laboratory accident (Pocchiari M, Italian Registry of CJD: personal communication). Thus, the last two cases of variant CJD outside the United Kingdom have been associated with potential occupational exposure. Such cases highlight the need for improvements in the prevention of transmission of variant CJD and other prions that can affect humans in the laboratory and neurosurgery settings, as outlined in the Supplementary Appendix.
Jean-Philippe Brandel, M.D. Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France
M. Bustuchina Vlaicu, M.D. Groupe Hospitalier Nord-Essonne, Orsay, France
Audrey Culeux, B.Sc. INSERM Unité 1127, Paris, France
Maxime Belondrade, M.Sc. Daisy Bougard, Ph.D. Etablissement Français du Sang, Montpellier, France
Katarina Grznarova, Ph.D. Angeline Denouel, M.Sc. INSERM Unité 1127, Paris, France
Isabelle Plu, M.D. Elodie Bouaziz-Amar, Pharm.D., Ph.D. Danielle Seilhean, M.D., Ph.D. Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France
Michèle Levasseur, M.D. Groupe Hospitalier Nord-Essonne, Orsay, France
Stéphane Haïk, M.D., Ph.D. INSERM Unité 1127, Paris, France stephane.haik@upmc.fr
Supported by a grant (ANR-10-IAIHU-06) from Programme d’Investissements d’Avenir and Santé Publique France.
Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this letter at NEJM.org.
5 References
July 2, 2020
N Engl J Med 2020; 383:83-85
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc2000687
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34 year old Doctor Orthopedic Surgeon dies from CJD
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/07/second-lab-worker-with-deadly-prion-disease-prompts-research-pause-in-france/
Dr. Adam Thomas Dialectos
1987 - 2021
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June 21, 2021
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On Monday June 21, 2021, Dr. Adam Thomas Dialectos, loving husband, father, son, brother, uncle, Nouno, friend at the age of 34. Adam was born on April 29, 1987 in Reading, PA to Athan and Gretchen Dialectos. Adam was a 2005 graduate of Governor Mifflin High School, before receiving his degree in Health Sciences from James Madison University in 2009. Adam attended Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine for medical school and his subsequent residency in orthopedic surgery. Adam was completing his Spine Surgery Fellowship at New England Baptist Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. On February 7, 2019 Adam married the love of his life and girlfriend of 12 years, Lindsey (Schuler) Dialectos. They brought a beautiful baby boy into this world on January 6, 2021, Athananosis Adam Dialectos. Adam’s passion in life was unceasingly seeking to help others, emphasized by his desire to be a surgeon— a decision he made in his early elementary years. Adam continued this love of medicine throughout his life, which led to his achieving of the Henrietta and Jack Avart Memorial Award in 2019, awarded to the Orthopedic surgery resident who exhibited unparalleled excellence in their field during the residency program. This passion to learn, teach and support was truly understood through the patients whose lives Adam touched. When it came to his patients and coworkers, there was never a job too small for Adam. Those who knew Adam saw his personality shine through in so many other aspects of his life. Adam loved traveling. Some of his most memorable trips were with his wife, and countless snowboard trips with his brother, family, and friends. Adam loved everyone he was around; he loved and was loved by so many. Adam was truly one in a million. Adam is survived by his loving wife, Lindsey, and their son, Athan Adam; His father and mother, Athan and Gretchen; His brother Jordan and sister-in-law Megan, and their daughter Livia, Adam’s Goddaughter. His sister, Rachel, and her significant other, Bo Wagner. Furthermore, Adam is survived by his Yiayia, Joanne Dialectos, wife of the late George Dialectos; his Pop Pop, Donald Harford, husband of the late Nancy Servent; his Aunt Angel and Uncle Scott Helm; his Aunt Kelly and Uncle Darrell Markley. Adam was preceded in death by his Aunt Maria and Uncle Bob Care. Funeral Service will be held at Saints Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church, 1001 East Wyomissing Blvd. Reading on Thursday June 24th. Father Theodore Petrides and Father Thomas L. Pappalas will officiate. Interment will follow at Charles Evans Cemetery. The family will receive relatives and friends at Saints Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church from 9:00am to 11:00am with services beginning at 11:00. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the CJD Foundation at 3634 West Market Street Suite 110 Akron, Ohio 44333 or cjdfoundation.org in remembrance of Dr. Adam Dialectos. Donations may also be made to Saints Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church. Bean Funeral Home, 1605 Rockland Street, Hampden Heights, is in charge of arrangements and online condolences may be made at www.beanfuneralhomes.com.
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Published by Reading Eagle from Jun. 22 to Jun. 24, 2021.
Our sincere condolences to the Family and Friends of Dr. Adam Thomas Dialectos.
I can't help but ponder, as a Orthopedic Surgeon, Spine Surgery Fellowship, and what the good Doctors work curtailed, i can't help but think this is a potential case of iatrogenic CJD. surgery on humans, i would imagine cadavers as well.
all iatrogenic cjd is, is sporadic cjd, before the iatrogenic event is discovered, traced back, provern, documented, put into the academic domain, and then finally the public domain, this very seldom happens, thus problem solved, it's all sporadic cjd. ...terry
least we forget...
*** Transmission of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease to a chimpanzee by electrodes contaminated during neurosurgery ***
Gibbs CJ Jr, Asher DM, Kobrine A, Amyx HL, Sulima MP, Gajdusek DC.
Laboratory of Central Nervous System Studies, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892. Stereotactic multicontact electrodes used to probe the cerebral cortex of a middle aged woman with progressive dementia were previously implicated in the accidental transmission of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) to two younger patients. The diagnoses of CJD have been confirmed for all three cases. More than two years after their last use in humans, after three cleanings and repeated sterilisation in ethanol and formaldehyde vapour, the electrodes were implanted in the cortex of a chimpanzee. Eighteen months later the animal became ill with CJD. This finding serves to re-emphasise the potential danger posed by reuse of instruments contaminated with the agents of spongiform encephalopathies, even after scrupulous attempts to clean them.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8006664&dopt=Abstract
Second lab worker with deadly prion disease prompts research pause in France
A lab worker died of prion disease in 2019, nine years after a lab accident.
BETH MOLE - 7/29/2021, 5:16 PM
A 2020 paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine left little doubt that Jaumain had been infected on the job. She had variant CJD, but since Europe’s ‘mad cow’ outbreak ended after 2000 and the disease virtually disappeared, the paper said it was virtually impossible for someone her age in France to contract food-borne vCJD.
Science also said two independent reports – one by government inspectors – had found no safety violations at the lab where Jaumain worked. The press release also noted that the inspectors concluded there was “the presence of a risk control culture within the research teams”. The Jaumain family’s lawyer called the neutrality of the reports into question, however.
At the same time, the government inspectors’ report also revealed that there had been at least 17 accidents among the 100 or so scientists and technicians in France working with prions in the previous decade, raising concerns about how effective this risk control culture is. Five of these occurred when workers “stabbed or cut themselves with contaminated syringes or blades”.
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
France issues moratorium on prion research after fatal brain disease strikes two lab workers
Volume 26, Number 8—August 2020
Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease among Physicians, Germany, 1993–2018 high proportion of physicians with sCJD were surgeons
Saturday, January 23, 2021
Improved surveillance of surgical instruments reprocessing following the variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease crisis in England: findings from a 3-year survey
SUNDAY, JULY 19, 2020
Joseph J. Zubak Orthopaedic surgeon passed away Monday, July 6, 2020, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)
snip...
Thursday, July 29, 2021
TSE PRION OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE VIA ANIMAL OR HUMAN, iatrogenic transmission, nvCJD or sCJD, what if?
Potential Exposure to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease VA Connecticut Healthcare System West Haven, Connecticut
VA OIG releases findings of potential CJD exposure
July 2, 2014
Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
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