Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody (anti-CCP antibody) is present in the sera of patients with dementia of Alzheimer's type in Asian.
BACKGROUND
In the hippocampi of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, aberrant expression of citrullinated proteins and peptidylarginase 2 (PADI2) has been identified. We explored the functional roles of these proteins by means of detection of serum anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody (anti-CCP antibody) in patients with dementia of Alzheimer's type (DAT).


METHODS
Sera were obtained from 42 patients with DAT, 30 patients with other neurological disorders and 42 healthy controls. Gender ratio and age were comparable among the three groups. The level of anti-CCP antibody in sera was examined by ELISA.


RESULTS
Anti-CCP antibody was not found in the 30 patients with other neurological disorders, and only one of the 42 healthy controls (2.4%) was positive. However, surprisingly, anti-CCP antibody was clearly detected in eight of the 42 DAT patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Anti-CCP antibody appears to be a simple and early serologic biomarker for DAT among dementia patients. Additionally, our data imply that citrullinated proteins accumulated in the astrocytes of AD patients acquire neo-antigenicity, inducing anti-CCP antibody production.
Satoh
K
K
the First Department of Internal Medicine, Nagasaki University School of Medicine, Nagasaki, 852-8501 Japan. f1537@cc.nagasaki-u.ac.jp
Kawakami
A
A
Shirabe
S
S
Tamai
M
M
Sato
A
A
Tsujihata
M
M
Nagasato
K
K
Eguchi
K
K
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D001208:Asia; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic / Q000276:immunology*
D001323:Autoantibodies; D015415:Biomarkers; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic; C487763:cyclic citrullinated peptide