Could Blood Transfusions Carry Alzheimer-Linked Proteins?

A new Lancet review asks whether Alzheimer-linked amyloid proteins could potentially pass through blood transfusions, but the risk remains unproven.

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A new Lancet review is examining a provocative question: could blood transfusions ever carry amyloid-beta proteins associated with Alzheimer disease and related brain conditions? The idea comes from evidence that certain forms of amyloid-beta can act as seeds, encouraging more of the protein to build up under particular circumstances. Researchers have previously documented rare cases in which amyloid pathology appeared decades after older medical procedures involving contaminated human tissue. A large Scandinavian study also found an association between certain donor histories and later brain bleeding in recipients, which researchers say raises questions about whether amyloid-related material could sometimes be transferred through blood. But this does not show that Alzheimer disease is contagious, and it does not establish that routine blood transfusions cause Alzheimer disease. The new review emphasizes that major gaps remain in the evidence, including whether amyloid-beta can actually move through blood in a meaningful way, how often that could happen, and whether any detectable risk would be large enough to matter. Researchers are calling for larger studies and better ways to investigate possible blood biomarkers while stressing that transfusions remain an important and often lifesaving medical treatment.

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