Patient of University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) to be given CJD treatment

In a world-first, a patient of University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) is set to be given a pioneering treatment for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). UCLH is set to give the antibody to a patient for the first time after a judge in the Court of Protection today confirmed that it is lawful and in the patient’s best interests to receive the unlicensed treatment.

UCLH has created an antibody (PRN100) that binds tightly to normal proteins in the brain, stopping the abnormal prions from attaching themselves to healthy proteins, thus preventing them from causing damage to the brain.