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1: Nat Med. 2003 Sep;9(9):1121-3. Epub 2003 Aug 24.
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The sympathetic nervous system is involved in variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Haïk S, Faucheux BA, Sazdovitch V, Privat N, Kemeny JL, Perret-Liaudet A, Hauw JJ.

Raymond Escourolle Neuropathology Laboratory, Association Claude Bernard and INSERM U360, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, 75013, Paris, France. haik@mailhost.chups.jussieu.fr

Prion epizoonoses spread from animals consumed by humans raise the question of which pathways lead to prion neuroinvasion after oral exposure of humans. Here we show that neurons of sympathetic ganglia of patients with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) accumulate the abnormal isoform of the protein prion. This observation shows the involvement of the sympathetic nervous system in the pathogenesis of vCJD and suggests a role for GUT-associated sympathetic neurons in prion propagation in humans after oral contamination.

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PMID: 12937415 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]