Cited by 605Alzheimer's disease research and treatmentsAdvanced Proteomics Techniques and ApplicationsDementia and Cognitive Impairment Research

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 107 of the 108 references it cites were found in a registry or an index, and 1 are not checked yet; 28 of the 51 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Deep Multilayer Brain Proteomics Identifies Molecular Networks in Alzheimer’s Disease Progression

Open access

Abstract

Summary Alzheimer's disease (AD) displays a long asymptomatic stage before dementia. We characterize AD stage-associated molecular networks by profiling 14,513 proteins and 34,173 phosphosites in human brain with mass spectrometry, highlighting 173 protein changes in 17 pathways. The altered proteins are validated in two independent cohorts, showing partial RNA dependency. Comparisons of brain tissue and cerebrospinal fluid proteomes reveal biomarker candidates. Combining with 5xFAD mouse analysis, we determine 15 Aβ-correlated proteins (e.g., MDK, NTN1, SMOC1, SLIT2 and HTRA1). 5xFAD shows a proteomic signature similar to symptomatic AD but exhibits activation of autophagy and interferon response, and lacks human-specific deleterious events, such as downregulation of neurotrophic factors and synaptic proteins. Multi-omics integration prioritizes AD-related molecules and pathways, including amyloid cascade, inflammation, complement, WNT signaling, TGFβ/BMP signaling, lipid metabolism, iron homeostasis, and membrane transport. Some Aβ-correlated proteins are colocalized with amyloid plaques. Thus, the multilayer omics approach identifies protein networks during AD progression.

Verified 2026-10-06 · 1 reference not checked yet

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This study uses deep multilayer proteomics of human brain across Alzheimer’s disease stages to map protein and phosphoprotein networks, validate them in independent cohorts and a 5xFAD mouse model, and prioritize candidate disease pathways and biomarkers. It reports widespread stage-specific protein changes, partial RNA independence, Aβ-correlated proteins, and human–mouse differences.

Key findings

  • Profiling quantified 14,513 proteins and 34,173 phosphosites, identifying 173 differentially expressed proteins in 17 pathways and 873 differentially expressed phosphopeptides; 163 of the 173 proteins did not change significantly in PSP, suggesting AD specificity.
  • Validation in 49 individual Banner Sun samples re-detected 121 of the 173 proteins, with 117 showing similar progression patterns; in 62 Mount Sinai cases, 84 of those 117 were reidentified and 58 changed consistently.
  • Aβ-correlated analysis found 28 proteins, of which 15 increased consistently in 5xFAD mice, including MDK, NTN1, SMOC1, SLIT2, and HTRA1; MDK and NTN1 directly bound Aβ40, and several proteins colocalized with plaques.
  • CSF profiling of 13 samples detected 49 of the 58 AD-altered brain proteins, with 8 changing consistently, including 4 previously reported candidates and 4 novel ones: SLC39A12, SLC5A3, SLIT2, and STEAP3.

Methods

  • Discovery used frontal cortex from 90 selected human cases pooled into 10 groups spanning low-pathology controls, high Aβ pathology without cognitive defects, MCI, late-stage AD, and PSP; validation used 49 Banner Sun cases and 62 Mount Sinai cases, plus 13 CSF samples.
  • Proteins and phosphopeptides were measured by TMT labeling and two-dimensional LC/LC-MS/MS, with TiO2 phosphopeptide enrichment and JUMP database searching; analyses included WGCNA clustering, PPI modules, kinase activity inference, and differential expression testing.
  • Multi-omics prioritization combined MCI/AD proteome, phosphoproteome, aggregated proteome, GWAS, transcriptome, and interactome data using order statistics and GSEA; 5xFAD and wild-type mice at 3, 6, and 12 months were compared with human disease stages.

Limitations

  • The paper states that pooling averages biological variation but can let one poor-quality sample affect an entire pool; it also notes PMI and cell-type composition as confounders, which were addressed by removing PMI-affected proteins, selecting short-PMI samples, and applying cell-type correction.
  • The paper describes the CSF analysis as a pilot biomarker study with only 13 samples in the final dataset, and the mouse model as unable to fully mimic AD.
  • Evident from the text: the human design is cross-sectional rather than longitudinal, several discovery and validation thresholds allow FDR up to 20%, and the 5xFAD comparison is limited by species-specific biology and a single transgenic model.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.12.015

Cites

107 of 108 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

28 of 51 cited sources checked · 17 supported · 0 flagged · accuracy not yet measured

Show all 82 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 64
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 22
76 of 76
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Postmortem human brain proteome measurements reflect antemortem disease processes.

    “As clinical proteomic studies are often affected by confounding factors, such as postmortem interval (PMI) (Beach et al., 2015), we performed a survey of mouse brain samples with PMI of 0, 3, and 12 hours.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    A lack of significant RNA upregulation for a protein indicates posttranscriptional regulation.

    “suggesting that the remaining 45% of increased proteins are regulated by posttranscriptional mechanisms.”
    “indicating that most Aβ-correlated proteins in 5xFAD are regulated by posttranscriptional mechanisms.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The 5xFAD mouse model's proteomic changes can be attributed to Aβ accumulation and used to infer cause-effect relationships of Aβ-correlated proteins.

    “We then evaluated the cause and effect relationships of the Aβ-correlated proteins in the 5xFAD model (Oakley et al., 2006) by analyzing a total of 16,128 proteins”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    CSF protein changes reflect brain tissue changes in AD.

    “To examine if these protein changes in the AD brain tissue are detectable as potential biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), we performed deep proteomics profiling of CSF samples”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    In FDR estimation, mismatches in the target database are assumed to be the same as in the decoy database.

    “assuming mismatches in the target database were the same as in the decoy database.”
5 of 5

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

  • Percentage of previously reported proteins is misstated

    Minor

    Thirteen of 58 is 22.4%, which rounds to 22% rather than the reported 23%.

    Reported 23 · recomputed 22.413793

  • Iron-homeostasis count does not match the list

    Minor

    The text says five proteins were upregulated but names only four after the colon.

2 of 2

Citations

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Show all 108 references

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 401–500 of 605

Metadata

Authors
Bai, B., Wang, X., Li, Y., Chen, P.-C., Yu, K., Dey, K. K., Yarbro, J. M., Han, X., Lutz, B. M., Rao, S., Jiao, Y., Sifford, J. M., Han, J., Wang, M., Tan, H., Shaw, T. I., Cho, J.-H., Zhou, S., Wang, H., Niu, M., Mancieri, A., Messler, K. A., Sun, X., Wu, Z., Pagala, V., High, A. A., Bi, W., Zhang, H., Chi, H., Haroutunian, V., Zhang, B., Beach, T. G., Yu, G., & Peng, J.
Affiliations
  • St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (US)
  • The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (US)
  • James J. Peters VA Medical Center (US)
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (US)
  • Banner Sun Health Research Institute (US)
Corresponding author
  • Wang, Xusheng
  • Peng, Junmin
Venue
Neuron
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-03
Volume
105
Issue
6
Pages
975-991.e7
ISSN
0896-6273 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2998763810
Cited by
565
References
108
Citations by year
2026: 73 · 2025: 95 · 2024: 98 · 2023: 83 · 2022: 79 · 2021: 85 · 2020: 50
FWCI
30.75
Type
journal article
Language
en
Update notices
erratum (2020-05-20)
Open access
Locations
  • Neuron (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • UND Scholarly Commons (University of North Dakota) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (P30AG019610, R01AG047928, R01AG053987, R01AG057907, R01AG064909, R01GM114260, R01NS079796, RF1AG057440, U01AG046170, U24NS072026)
  • Arizona Department of Health Services (211002)
  • Arizona Biomedical Research Commission (0011, 05-901, 1001, 4001)
  • American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (P30CA021765)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Spectroscopy › Advanced Proteomics Techniques and Applications
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
Keywords
Alzheimer's disease, disease progression, brain proteome, phosphoproteomics, molecular networks, amyloid-beta, cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers, 5xFAD mice, autophagy, interferon response, amyloid plaques, multi-omics integration, neuroinflammation, complement system, Wnt signaling, TGF-beta signaling, BMP signaling, lipid metabolism, iron homeostasis, membrane transport, neurotrophic factors, synaptic proteins
MeSH terms
Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alzheimer Disease, Animals, Brain, Female, Humans, Male, Mice, Mutant Strains, Middle Aged, Phosphoproteins, Biomarkers, Disease Progression, Proteome, Proteomics, Mice, Metabolic Networks and Pathways

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-10-06, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).

A second model labelled each claim on 2026-10-06 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).

Cited sources are checked with a language model’s help (gpt-6-sol).

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review