Publications by authors named "Genevieve Klug"

Nationwide surveillance of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and other human prion diseases is performed by the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry (ANCJDR). National surveillance encompasses the period since 1 January 1970, with prospective surveillance occurring from 1 October 1993. Over this prospective surveillance period, considerable developments have occurred in pre-mortem diagnostics; in the delineation of new disease subtypes; and in a heightened awareness of prion diseases in healthcare settings.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nationwide surveillance of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and other human prion diseases is performed by the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry (ANCJDR). National surveillance encompasses the period since 1 January 1970, with prospective surveillance occurring from 1 October 1993. Over this prospective surveillance period, considerable developments have occurred in pre-mortem diagnostics; in the delineation of new disease subtypes; and in a heightened awareness of prion diseases in healthcare settings.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nationwide surveillance of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and other human prion diseases is performed by the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry (ANCJDR). National surveillance encompasses the period since 1 January 1970, with prospective surveillance occurring from 1 October 1993. Over this prospective surveillance period, considerable developments have occurred in pre-mortem diagnostics; in the delineation of new disease subtypes; and in a heightened awareness of prion diseases in healthcare settings.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Purpose: Recent scientific reports and epidemiological studies have engendered mounting concerns regarding the potential human-to-human transmissibility of non-prion neurodegenerative and related diseases. This study investigated whether recipients of cadaveric pituitary hormone treatments are at increased risk of death from non-prion neurodegenerative and related diseases.

Methods: A retrospective national cohort study based on death certificates of recipients of the cadaveric pituitary hormone treatments (n = 184) as part of the Australian Human Pituitary Hormone Program (AHPHP; n = 2940) 1967-1985.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nationwide surveillance of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and other human prion diseases is performed by the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry (ANCJDR). National surveillance encompasses the period since 1 January 1970, with prospective surveillance occurring from 1 October 1993. Over this prospective surveillance period, considerable developments have occurred in pre-mortem diagnostics; in the delineation of new disease subtypes; and in a heightened awareness of prion diseases in healthcare settings.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Indigenous Australians are at increased risk of developing dementia - Alzheimer disease and mixed dementia diagnoses are the most common. While prion diseases have been reported in Indigenous peoples of Papua New Guinea and the United States, the occurrence and phenotype of prion disease in Indigenous Australians is hitherto unreported.

Aim: To report the incidence rate and clinical phenotype of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in Indigenous Australians.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nationwide surveillance of human prion diseases (also known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies), the most common being Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), is performed by the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry (ANCJDR), based at the University of Melbourne. National surveillance encompasses the period since 1 January 1970, with prospective surveillance occurring from 1 October 1993. Over this prospective surveillance period considerable developments have occurred in relation to pre-mortem diagnostics, the delineation of new disease subtypes and a heightened awareness of prion diseases in health care settings.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nation-wide surveillance of human transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE, also known as prion diseases), the most common being Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, is performed by the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease Registry, based at the University of Melbourne. Prospective surveillance has been undertaken since 1993 and over this dynamic period in transmissible spongiform encephalopathy research and understanding, the unit has evolved and adapted to changes in surveillance practices and requirements concomitant with the delineation of new disease subtypes, improvements in diagnostic capabilities and the overall heightened awareness of prion diseases in the health care setting. In 2016, routine national surveillance continued and this brief report provides an update of the cumulative surveillance data collected by the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease Registry prospectively from 1993 to December 2016, and retrospectively to 1970.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nation-wide surveillance of human transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (also known as prion diseases), the most common being Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, is performed by the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry, based at the University of Melbourne. Prospective surveillance has been undertaken since 1993 and over this dynamic period in transmissible spongiform encephalopathy research and understanding, the unit has evolved and adapted to changes in surveillance practices and requirements concomitant with the delineation of new disease subtypes, improvements in diagnostic capabilities and the overall heightened awareness of prion diseases in the health care setting. In 2015, routine national surveillance continued and this brief report provides an update of the cumulative surveillance data collected by the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry prospectively from 1993 to December 2015, and retrospectively to 1970.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nation-wide surveillance of human transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (also known as prion diseases), the most common being Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, is performed by the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry, based at the University of Melbourne. Prospective surveillance has been undertaken since 1993 and over this dynamic period in transmissible spongiform encephalopathy research and understanding, the unit has evolved and adapted to changes in surveillance practices and requirements concomitant with the emergence of new disease subtypes, improvements in diagnostic capabilities and the overall heightened awareness of prion diseases in the health care setting. In 2014, routine national surveillance continued and this brief report provides an update of the cumulative surveillance data collected by the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry prospectively from 1993 to December 2014, and retrospectively to 1970.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The cellular prion protein (PrP(C)) is a ubiquitously expressed protein of currently unresolved but potentially diverse function. Of putative relevance to normal biological activity, PrP(C) is recognized to undergo both α- and β-endoproteolysis, producing the cleavage fragment pairs N1/C1 and N2/C2, respectively. Experimental evidence suggests the likelihood that these processing events serve differing cellular needs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nation-wide surveillance of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, is performed by the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry, based at the University of Melbourne. Surveillance has been undertaken since 1993. Over this dynamic period in transmissible spongiform encephalopathy research and understanding, the unit has evolved and adapted to changes in surveillance practices and requirements, the emergence of new disease subtypes, improvements in diagnostic capabilities and the overall heightened awareness and understanding of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and other transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in the health care setting.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Anticipation is the phenomenon whereby age of onset in genetic disease decreases in successive generations. Three independent reports have claimed anticipation in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) caused by the c.598G > A mutation in PRNP encoding a p.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nation-wide surveillance for transmissible spongiform encephalopathies including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is undertaken by the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease Registry (ANCJDR), based at the University of Melbourne. Surveillance has been undertaken since 1993. During this period the unit has evolved and adapted to changes in surveillance practices and requirements, the emergence of new disease subtypes, improvements in diagnostic capabilities and the overall heightened awareness and understanding of CJD and other transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in the health care setting.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Prospective national screening and surveillance programmes serve a range of public health functions. Objectively determining their adequacy and impact on disease may be problematic for rare disorders. We undertook to assess whether objective measures of disease surveillance intensity could be developed for the rare disorder sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and whether such measures correlate with disease incidence.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Importance: Here we describe the unusual clinical and molecular-neuropathological profile of a case of Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease associated with a novel prion protein (PRNP) gene mutation.

Observations: This case report from the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Registry concerns a 61-year-old British-born woman with no history of neurodegenerative disorder in first-degree relatives. Rapidly progressive dementia, altered behavior, and cerebellar ataxia dominated the clinical picture in the period immediately following minor elective surgery, with death 1 month later in an akinetic-mute state.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease Registry (ANCJDR) is a Commonwealth Government-funded surveillance unit, responsible for the ascertainment of all cases of human transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (also known as prion diseases) in Australia. Having been in operation for 18 years, the activities of the ANCJDR have evolved and expanded over this timeframe, with the ANCJDR providing clinical, diagnostic and infection control advice and service. This update provides a review of the activities of the ANCJDR during 2011 and analysis of both prospective and retrospective (to 1970) data collected from 1993 to 31 December 2011.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is the most prevalent manifestation of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies or prion diseases affecting humans. The disease encompasses a spectrum of clinical phenotypes that have been correlated with molecular subtypes that are characterized by the molecular mass of the protease-resistant fragment of the disease-related conformation of the prion protein and a polymorphism at codon 129 of the gene encoding the prion protein. A cell-free assay of prion protein misfolding was used to investigate the ability of these sporadic CJD molecular subtypes to propagate using brain-derived sources of the cellular prion protein (PrP(C)).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Since the establishment of the Australian National Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease Registry (ANCJDR) its activities have expanded from prospectively investigating additional iatrogenic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease cases to include: retrospective ascertainment to 1970; provision of expert opinions in the area of infection control management; provide diagnostic testing services for all suspect cases; and maintenance of national and international collaborations in conjunction with routine surveillance responsibilities. An update of the ANCJDR's surveillance activities and outcomes between 1 April and 31 December 2010 is herein presented, including a summation of a recent publication by the ANCJDR. The shorter reporting period is due to a contractual change with the Department of Health and Ageing in 2010, resulting in the reporting timeframe shifting to align with full calendar years.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The development of technologies for the in vitro amplification of abnormal conformations of prion protein (PrP(Sc)) has generated the potential for sensitive detection of prions. Here we developed a new PrP(Sc) amplification assay, called real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QUIC), which allows the detection of ≥1 fg of PrP(Sc) in diluted Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) brain homogenate. Moreover, we assessed the technique first in a series of Japanese subjects and then in a blind study of 30 cerebrospinal fluid specimens from Australia, which achieved greater than 80% sensitivity and 100% specificity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

From 1967, the Australian Human Pituitary Hormone Program offered treatment for short stature and infertility using human cadaver-acquired pituitary hormones (human growth hormone [hGH] and human pituitary gonadotrophin [hPG]). The program was suspended in 1985 when a growth-hormone recipient in the United States developed Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), an incurable and rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disorder. Since this time, recipients have lived with the significant anxiety that they have an elevated risk of developing CJD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF