AA amyloid in human food chain is a possible biohazard

Anna Rising,Marie E Oskarsson,Per Westermark,Gunilla T Westermark,Jan Johansson,Paola Gherardi,Gefei Chen

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-00588-w

Abstract

AA amyloidosis can be transmitted experimentally in several mammalian and avian species as well as spontaneously between captive animals, even by oral intake of amyloid seeds. Amyloid seeding can cross species boundaries, and fibrils of one kind of amyloid protein may also seed other types. Here we show that meat from Swedish and Italian cattle for consumption by humans often contains AA amyloid and that bovine AA fibrils efficiently cross-seed human amyloid β peptide, associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Highlights

AA amyloidosis can be transmitted experimentally in several mammalian and avian species as well as spontaneously between captive animals, even by oral intake of amyloid seeds
In mammals, including human and bovine, AA amyloid deposits develop in most organs of the body through seeding where misfolded serum AA (SAA) species catalyze fibril formation leading to large extracellular aggregates, i.e. a myloid[5]
The reason for the high amyloidosis prevalence in Italian versus the Swedish animals is unclear and the found values may not be representative of the prevalence on a national level since the material came from only one region in each country

Summary

Introduction

AA amyloidosis can be transmitted experimentally in several mammalian and avian species as well as spontaneously between captive animals, even by oral intake of amyloid seeds. In mammals, including human and bovine, AA amyloid deposits develop in most organs of the body through seeding where misfolded SAA species catalyze fibril formation leading to large extracellular aggregates, i.e. a myloid[5]. Tissues for histopathological examination were obtained from 97 Swedish cattle > 4 years old from one local slaughterhouse.

Results

Conclusion