title: Full-length amyloid-beta (1-42(43)) and amino-terminally modified and truncated amyloid-beta 42(43) deposit in diffuse plaques.
abstract: The amino- and carboxyl-terminal properties of the amyloid-beta (A beta) peptides deposited in diffuse plaques, one of the earliest forms of A beta deposition, were examined in the brains of patients with Down's syndrome and Alzheimer's disease and in aged individuals without dementia by immunocytochemistry. This was done using a panel of antibodies that specifically discriminate the terminal structures and modifications at the amino and carboxyl termini of A beta. Diffuse plaques found in the cerebral and cerebellar cortex, neostriatum, and hypothalamus of Down's syndrome, Alzheimer's disease, and nondemented brains were strongly immunoreactive for A beta N1(L-Asp), A beta N1(L-isoAsp), A beta N1(D-Asp), and A beta N3(pyroGlu) and weakly positive for A beta N11(pyroGlu) and A beta N17(Leu). Diffuse plaques also were positive for A beta 42(43) but negative for A beta 40, using carboxyl-terminal-specific anti-A beta antibodies. These results suggest that the amino termini of the A beta species that initially deposit in diffuse plaques begin with A beta N1(Asp) with or without structural modifications (isomerization and racemization), as well as with A beta N3(pyroGlu), and terminate preferentially at A beta 42(43) rather than A beta 40.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropathology and Neuroscience, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Iwatsubo
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Saido
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Mann
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: J Q
authors.initials: JQ
authors.lastname: Trojanowski
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000378:metabolism*; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016874:Neurofibrillary Tangles / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D017384:Sequence Deletion
chemical_list: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides