A 53-year-old previously healthy man has had a rapid decline in mental function over the past 4 months. On physical examination he exhibits profound dementia along with myoclonus. He is afebrile. A cerebral electroencephalogram shows periodic biphasic synchronous sharp-wave complexes that are superimposed upon a slow background rhythm. He dies from bronchopneumonia. At autopsy, his brain appears grossly normal, but a spongiform encephalopathy is seen microscopically in a section of the cerebral cortex (which was put in concentrated formic acid for 1 hour prior to processing). Which of the following is the most likely diagnosis?

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