Aluminum Is Intricately Associated with the Neuropathology of Familial Alzheimer’s Disease
The new data demonstrate that aluminum is co-located with phosphorylated tau protein, present as tangles within neurons in the brains of early-onset or familial Alzheimer’s disease. “The presence of these tangles is associated with neuronal cell death, and observations of aluminum in these tangles may highlight a role for aluminum in their formation,” explained lead investigator Matthew John Mold, PhD, Birchall Centre, Lennard-Jones Laboratories, Keele University, Staffordshire, UK.
The earlier research highlighted widespread co-localization of aluminum and amyloid-β in brain tissue in familial AD. The researchers used a highly-selective method of immunolabelling in the current study, combined with aluminum-specific fluorescence microscopy. Phosphorylated tau in tangles co-located with aluminum in the brain tissue of the same cohort of Colombian donors with familial AD were identified. “It is of interest and perhaps significance with respect to aluminum’s role in AD that its unequivocal association with tau is not as easily recognizable as with amyloid-β. There are many more aggregates of aluminum with amyloid-β than with tau in these tissues and the latter are predominantly intracellular,” remarked co-author, Professor Christopher Exley.
The image shows aluminum (orange) in a neuron in a donor's brain tissue with familial AD. The same neuron revealed positive immunostaining (brown) for phosphorylated tau (pTau). Merging these images showed that aluminum and pTau are co-located inside the same cell.
George Perry, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, comments: "Aluminum accumulation has been associated with Alzheimer's disease for nearly half a century, but it is the meticulously specific studies of Drs. Mold and Exley that are defining the exact molecular interaction of aluminum and other multivalent metals that may be critical to formation of the pathology of Alzheimer's disease."
“The new data may suggest that the association of aluminum with extracellular senile plaques precedes that with intracellular aggregates of tau. These relationships with both amyloid-β and tau may account for the high levels of aluminum observed in the brain tissue of donors with familial AD versus those without a diagnosis of neurodegenerative disease,” said Dr. Mold. “Tau and amyloid-beta are known to act in synergy to produce neurotoxicity in AD and our data provide new evidence for a role of aluminum in this process.”
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NOTES FOR EDITORS
Full open access study: “Aluminum and Tau in Neurofibrillary Tangles in Familial Alzheimer’s Disease” by Matthew John Mold, Adam O’Farrell, Benjamin Morris, and Christopher Exley (DOI: 10.3233/ADR-210011) published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease Reports, Volume 5, Issue 1 (April 2021). It is openly available at: content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease-reports/adr210011.
Contact
For further information please contact Diana Murray, IOS Press (+1 718-640-5678 or d.murray@iospress.com). To reach the authors for comment, please contact Matthew John Mold (+44 1782 733508 or m.j.mold@keele.ac.uk).
About the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease Reports
The Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease Reports is an open access international multidisciplinary journal to facilitate progress in understanding the etiology, pathogenesis, epidemiology, genetics, behavior, treatment and psychology of Alzheimer’s disease. The journal publishes research reports, reviews, short communications, hypotheses, and case reports. It is dedicated to providing an open forum for original research that will expedite our fundamental understanding of Alzheimer’s disease. iospress.com/jad-reports
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