Diagnosis of Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in Both Kidney Recipients From the Same Donor: Was It Graft Transmission?

 Diagnosis of Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in Both Kidney Recipients From the Same Donor: Was It Graft Transmission?

Maciej M. Ponczek • Zuzanna Jakubowska • Ewa Wojtaszek • Jolanta Malyszko Published: March 14, 2026 DOI: 10.7759/cureus.105229

Recognizing rare causes of neuropsychiatric symptoms in transplant recipients can be challenging, as neurological complications occur in many patients and are usually due to infections, comorbidities, or drug toxicity. Once these factors have been ruled out, prion diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) should be considered. CJD can spread through medical interventions. Current diagnostic criteria for iatrogenic CJD take into account the possibility of transmission through corneal or dural transplants, contaminated neurosurgical tools, as well as administration of cadaveric pituitary hormones. They do not recognize solid organ transplantation as a viable transmission pathway. We present a unique case of concurrent rapidly progressive dementia in both kidney recipients from the same donor, in one of whom the diagnosis of CJD was confirmed. The clinical course, CSF findings, and neuropathology suggested possible prion transmission from their common donor. This case raises awareness of the possibility of transplant-derived prion infections and illustrates the complexity of the diagnostic workup. We advocate for wider adoption of appropriate diagnostic tools.

snip…

Our case report documents one of the very rare instances of patients developing CJD following a transplantation of an organ not typically recognized as a source of prion contamination.

https://www.cureus.com/articles/455875-diagnosis-of-sporadic-creutzfeldt-jakob-disease-in-both-kidney-recipients-from-the-same-donor-was-it-graft-transmission#!/

1: J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1994 Jun;57(6):757-8

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

https://itseprion.blogspot.com/2025/01/preventing-prion-disease-infection-in.html

https://itseprion.blogspot.com/

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

Professor John Collinge on tackling prion diseases

“The best-known human prion disease is sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), a rapidly progressive dementia which accounts for around 1 in 5000 deaths worldwide.”

There is accumulating evidence also for iatrogenic AD. Understanding prion biology, and in particular how propagation of prions leads to neurodegeneration, is therefore of central research importance in medicine.

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/brain-sciences/research/dementia-ucl-priority/professor-john-collinge-tackling-prion-diseases

https://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2023/09/professor-john-collinge-on-tackling.html

Alzheimer’s disease and Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy prion disease, Iatrogenic, 
what if ?

Posted by flounder on 05 Nov 2014 at 21:27 GMT

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/comment?id=10.1371/annotation/933cc83a-a384-45c3-b3b2-336882c30f9d

https://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/

terry