Autoantibodies against β‐amyloid are common in Alzheimer's disease and help control plaque burden

Abstract

Autoantibodies directed against beta-amyloid are common in AD patients and may contribute in controlling plaque burden.

Implication of the Immune System in Alzheimer's Disease: Evidence from Genome-Wide Pathway Analysis

“…However, natural antibodies against Aβ peptides are present in the sera of AD patients and in non demented individuals [31]. These auto-antibodies inhibit Aβ peptide aggregation in vitro [32], and it has been observed that in non-amyloid-immunized AD patients, auto-antibodies against Aβ peptides may help reduce the plaque burden and increase the numbers of phagocytic microglia [32]. Altogether, these data can be interpreted as an Aβ peptide antibody-dependent activation of immune response.…”

Systemic and Central Immunity in Alzheimer's Disease: Therapeutic Implications

“…However, one recent study [68] of AD brain tissue suggests that the majority of neuritic plaques in AD brain tissue are decorated by IgG and have a corresponding increase in associated phagocytic microglia.…”

The human genome is composed of viral DNA: Viral homologues of the protein products cause Alzheimer's disease and others via autoimmune mechanisms.

“…The foetal Alzheimer antigen (Alz50) which labels taucontaining filaments 56 , and is homologous to these pathogens (Fig 2) is an evident example. There are too many proteins to analyse individually, and beta-amyloid is used as an example, primarily because of the presence of beta-amyloid autoantibodies in the sera of the ageing population 69 and in Alzheimer's disease 38,58 . As seen in Fig 6, the beta-amyloid peptide is studded with vatches from a large number of phages and viruses, many within the immunogenic regions of the peptide.…”