Five adults in the UK with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease all received contaminated growth hormones from deceased donors during childhood, which scientists are claiming as proof the condition is potentially transmissible.

In a world first, University College London researchers have implicated a long-banned therapy using human cadaveric pituitary-derived growth hormone (c-hGH) in a handful of Alzheimer’s disease cases.

Their study, published in Nature Medicine, also suggests the condition has the “full triad” of aetiologies — sporadic, inherited, and iatrogenic — that are characteristic of conventional prion diseases.

“Although iatrogenic Alzheimer’s disease may be rare … its recognition emphasises the need to review measures to prevent accidental transmissions via other medical and surgical procedures,” the team wrote.