Friday, March 19, 2010

Interferon-gamma in the Pig PIN

Remember that outbreak of progressive inflammatory neuropathy (PIN) among pig abattoir workers back in 2007? If not, here's my blog post from January '08 summarizing the event. The good Dr. Mark Cohen (pictured at left) forwarded me a recently published article following up on the outbreak. Investigators found no infectious etiology; but they did find higher levels of interferon-gamma among PIN patients. Since elevated levels of interferon-gamma has been associated with both acute and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy, this finding supports an autoimmune mechanism for PIN.

8 comments:

Scout said...

I recommend the 2004 double CD Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus, released by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

Oh, sorry. This is not a music blog, is it? I got confused after that Arie Perry post.

Brian E. Moore, MD, MEd said...

Very funny, Scout.

Anonymous said...

Pigs tissues are routinely used in the medical arena. Even heparin production involves the use of pig intestines. Does the advent of this PIN condition in abattoir workers suggest that xenotransplantation may now be posing newly identified risks with porcine tissue use?

Brian E. Moore, MD, MEd said...

To Anonymous:
This possibility warrants monitoring, but I suspect that exposure to porcine CNS tissue constitutes the risk, rather than intestines or other tissues.
-BEM

Terry S. Singeltary Sr. said...

Greetings,

I have been following the novel polyradiculoneuropathy that was identified at a pork abattoir with great interest.

MY concern are with not only the pig brains, but cattle brains and risk fact to Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy.


my concern ;

nasal aerosol CJD, never say never.

PLEASE note, certain orthopedic surgery and bone grinding is a risk factor for potential nasal aerosol transmission of TSE. There may be no documented case of this mode of transmission to date, however, this does not mean it has not, or cannot take place, and a keen watch should be mandated. There is recent science with other TSE that indeed this mode of transmission is real. AS well, precaution should be used when working with TSE and aerosol of the TSE agent at hand i.e. bone grinding for example.

PrPTSE has also been detected in olfactory epithelium in sporadic CJD patients at post mortem (11), and in the olfactory tract in vCJD

http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@ab/documents/digitalasset/dh_114045.pdf

http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@ab/documents/digitalasset/dh_111792.pdf

P10. Aerosol, Nasal, and Oral Transmission of Chronic Wasting Disease

Nathaniel D. Denkers1, Glenn C. Telling2 and Edward A. Hoover1

Conclusions: CWD can be transmitted by aerosol and nasal exposure--potentially implicating exposure via the respiratory mucosa in CWD. Micro-abrasions to the lingual surface substantially facilitated CWD transmission, suggesting a co-factor that may be significant in foraging cervids or other species. These findings could have implications for the mucosal transmission of other prion diseases.

http://www.neuroprion.org/resources/pdf_docs/conferences/prion2009/brochure-tse_workshop.pdf

P.4.26

Aerosol and intranasal transmission of CWD

http://www.prion2009.com/sites/default/files/Prion2009_Book_of_Abstracts.pdf

J Gen Virol (2010), DOI 10.1099/vir.0.017335-0 © 2010 Society for General Microbiology

Aerosol and Nasal Transmission of Chronic Wasting Disease in Cervidized Mice

Nathaniel D Denkers1, Davis M Seelig1, Glenn C. Telling2 and Edward A Hoover, Jr1,3

1 Colorado State University; 2 University of Kentucky Medical Center

These results demonstrate that CWD can be transmitted by aerosol (as well as nasal) exposure and suggest that exposure via the respiratory system merits consideration for prion disease transmission and biosafety.

Received 30 October 2009; accepted 15 February 2010.

http://vir.sgmjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/vir.0.017335-0v1

http://jvi.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/83/13/6435

http://jvi.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/83/8/3657

http://vet.sagepub.com/content/46/1/59.abstract

PLEASE NOTE ;

>>> Up until about 6 years ago, the pt worked at Tyson foods where she worked on the assembly line, slaughtering cattle and preparing them for packaging. She was exposed to brain and spinal cord matter when she would euthanize the cattle. <<<

Monday, March 29, 2010

Irma Linda Andablo CJD Victim, she died at 38 years old on February 6, 2010 in Mesquite Texas

http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2010/03/irma-linda-andablo-cjd-victim-she-died.html

CJD TEXAS 38 YEAR OLD FEMALE WORKED SLAUGHTERING CATTLE EXPOSED TO BRAIN AND SPINAL CORD MATTER

http://cjdtexas.blogspot.com/2010/03/cjd-texas-38-year-old-female-worked.html

http://www.recordandoalinda.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19:cjd-english-info&catid=9:cjd-ingles&Itemid=8

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Atypical BSE in Cattle

http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2010/03/atypical-bse-in-cattle-position-post.html

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories Fifth Edition 2007 (occupational exposure to prion diseases)

http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2008/08/biosafety-in-microbiological-and.html

kind regards, terry

jd said...

That's a beautiful picture!!!

Terry S. Singeltary Sr. said...

2012 TSE prion threat to pharmaceuticals via PORCINE PRODUCTS...SEE ;


Sunday, January 29, 2012


Prion Disease Risks in the 21st Century 2011 PDA European Virus-TSE Safety Dr. Detwiler


Dr. Detwiler published Prion Disease Risks in the 21st Century 2011 PDA European Virus-TSE Safety Forum\Presentations TSE\ Page 33 and 34 of 44 ;



http://www.pda.org/


http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2012/01/prion-disease-risks-in-21st-century.html

Terry S. Singeltary Sr. said...

Wednesday, February 1, 2012



CJD and PLASMA / URINE PRODUCTS EMA Position Statements Alberto Ganan Jimenez, European Medicines Agency PDA TSE Safety Forum, 30 June 2011



http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2012/02/cjd-and-plasma-urine-products-ema.html

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