Death Sentence Diagnosis: Scientists Find Brain-Destroying Proteins In Eyes Of Infected Patients

Remember the man who died after eating squirrel meat? Well, there have been more details discovered.

A recent study involving a deadly brain disease shows that experts might be able to detect its presence just by looking at a patient’s eyes. The eyes of infected people could also act as a transmission point to spread the disease and the worst part is that there’s not even a cure or treatment for it developed yet.

The disease is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), and there’s also a variant called sporadic CJD. Modern medicine hasn’t been able to find an answer for it and, while it’s true that it’s rare, it’s a death sentence for anyone diagnosed with it.

A couple of months ago, a case of this disease had been reported in a medical journal that has been linked to a mat eating squirrel meat. The rare condition causes particular proteins in the brain to fold in an incorrect manner.

Prions cause severe brain lesions

The proteins are called prions, and they can cause severe lesions in the brain. In this particular case, the man’s disease was believed to be the result of him eating squirrel meat, especially its brain.

Other causes have shows that consuming brain matter can lead to the spread of the disease by this new research suggests that the eyes of an infected person can also contain prions.

Gizmodo noted that this is a massive cause for concern especially for people in the eye care field.

For instance, doctors who are performing eye surgery may be exposed at high risk of spreading prions by contaminating medical equipment without even realizing it.

There are 11 patients diagnosed with the disease, and they have been tested for prions in their eyes, and the results were all positive. Most prion “seeds” were found within the retina of each eye, but prions were also found in many other parts of the eye, including the lens, optic nerve, and even the surrounding muscles.