Cited by 201Alzheimer's disease research and treatmentsDementia and Cognitive Impairment ResearchNeuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms

Neuroprotective natural antibodies to assemblies of amyloidogenic peptides decrease with normal aging and advancing Alzheimer's disease

Open access
Britschgi, M., Olin, C. E., Johns, H. T., Takeda-Uchimura, Y., LeMieux, M. C., Rufibach, K., Rajadas, J., Zhang, H. +16 more·2009·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Abstract

A number of distinct β-amyloid (Aβ) variants or multimers have been implicated in Alzheimer's disease (AD), and antibodies recognizing such peptides are in clinical trials. Humans have natural Aβ-specific antibodies, but their diversity, abundance, and function in the general population remain largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate with peptide microarrays the presence of natural antibodies against known toxic Aβ and amyloidogenic non-Aβ species in plasma samples and cerebrospinal fluid of AD patients and healthy controls aged 21–89 years. Antibody reactivity was most prominent against oligomeric assemblies of Aβ and pyroglutamate or oxidized residues, and IgGs specific for oligomeric preparations of Aβ1-42 in particular declined with age and advancing AD. Most individuals showed unexpected antibody reactivities against peptides unique to autosomal dominant forms of dementia (mutant Aβ, ABri, ADan) and IgGs isolated from plasma of AD patients or healthy controls protected primary neurons from Aβ toxicity. Aged vervets showed similar patterns of plasma IgG antibodies against amyloid peptides, and after immunization with Aβ the monkeys developed high titers not only against Aβ peptides but also against ABri and ADan peptides. Our findings support the concept of conformation-specific, cross-reactive antibodies that may protect against amyloidogenic toxic peptides. If a therapeutic benefit of Aβ antibodies can be confirmed in AD patients, stimulating the production of such neuroprotective antibodies or passively administering them to the elderly population may provide a preventive measure toward AD.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1073/pnas.0904866106

Cites

64 of 64 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

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?

  • The level of anti-Aβ antibodies inversely correlates with the number of amyloid plaques.

    “their level inversely correlate with the number of amyloid plaques [97,98].”

    From Is there a role for B cells in Alzheimer's disease? (2026) · cites this paper as [97]

    The paper’s introductory summary (page not provided) reports that antibodies specific for oligomeric Aβ decline with advancing Alzheimer’s disease. Its introduction also reports reduced plaque load after active immunization, but neither passage establishes an inverse correlation between anti-Aβ antibody levels and the number of plaques. (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Antibodies to toxic forms of Aβ are present in the plasma and CSF of patients and healthy controls.

    “These antibodies to toxic forms of A β are present in the plasma and CSF of patients and healthy controls”

    From Is there a role for B cells in Alzheimer's disease? (2026) · cites this paper as [97]

Self-check

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

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

1 retracted

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 65 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Britschgi, M., Olin, C. E., Johns, H. T., Takeda-Uchimura, Y., LeMieux, M. C., Rufibach, K., Rajadas, J., Zhang, H., Tomooka, B., Robinson, W. H., Clark, C. M., Fagan, A. M., Galasko, D. R., Holtzman, D. M., Jutel, M., Kaye, J. A., Lemere, C. A., Leszek, J., Li, G., Peskind, E. R., Quinn, J. F., Yesavage, J. A., Ghiso, J. A., & Wyss-Coray, T.
Affiliations
  • Stanford Medicine (US)
  • Stanford University (US)
  • Departments of aNeurology and Neurological Sciences and
  • University of Zurich (CH)
  • VA Palo Alto Health Care System (US)
  • University of Pennsylvania (US)
  • Washington University in St. Louis (US)
  • University of California San Diego (US)
  • Wroclaw Medical University (PL)
  • Oregon Health & Science University (US)
  • Brigham and Women's Hospital (US)
  • University of Washington (US)
  • NYU Langone Health (US)
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2009-07-21
Volume
106
Issue
29
Pages
12145-12150
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
OpenAlex
W2132576841
Cited by
201
References
65
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 20
FWCI
12.41
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
Funders
  • National Institute on Aging (P01AG010491, AG10491, AG 08017, AG20603, R01AG020603, P30AG008017, R01AG030539, AG030539, P50AG005136)
  • National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01NS136122)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
Keywords
Alzheimer's disease, natural antibodies, amyloid-beta, amyloid oligomers, neuroprotection, aging, cerebrospinal fluid, plasma IgG, pyroglutamic acid, ABRI, Adán, conformation-specific antibodies, vervet monkey, immunization, passive immunotherapy, peptide microarrays
MeSH terms
Aging, Alzheimer Disease, Animals, Antibodies, Dementia, Genes, Dominant, Immunoglobulin G, Immunization, Molecular Weight, Neurons, Peptides, Primates, Protein Processing, Post-Translational, Amyloid beta-Peptides, Disease Progression, Neuroprotective Agents, Cytoprotection, Protein Structure, Quaternary, Mice

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.

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