Benzene Poisoning Unlikely to Cause Scrapie

Dear Sir,

The suggestion that scrapie may be due to benzene poisoning (See Correspondence Section: William M Snape, 9/01/03) is unlikely to be correct for several reasons. Scrapie has been known in the UK for some three hundred years and in France the scrapie equivalent known as "La Tremblante" was first reported in 1690 during the reign of Louis XIV. In those earlier centuries there was practically no industrial production of benzene like materials and the chemical industry appeared only during the Victorian times.

Furthermore scrapie has been reported from many countries throughout the world where exposure to benzene like materials was highly unlikely to occur.

Although the cause of scrapie is unknown, it is likely to follow exposure to a biological environmental agent, such as a virus or a bacterium. The King's College group in London has suggested that BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) is an autoimmune disease caused by the soil bacterium Acinetobacter which carries molecular sequences resembling brain tissues. Elevated levels of antibodies to Acinetobacter are present in BSE affected animals (Tiwana et al., Infection & Immunity, 1999; vol.67: 6591-6595). Anti-brain autoantibodies are present in both BSE and scrapie. It is possible that scrapie is produced by a similar ubiquitous microorganism such as Acinetobacter and studies are under way to explore this possibility.

Alan Ebringer BSc, MD, FRCP, FRACP, FRCPath
Professor of Immunology, King's College London