title: Antibodies against small heat-shock proteins in Alzheimer's disease as a part of natural human immune repertoire or activation of humoral response?
abstract: Characterization of autoantibodies specific for some disease-related proteins, would allow to better assess their role as diagnostic and prognostic markers. In the light of increasing evidence for both humoral and cellular adaptive immune responses in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and data on the increased small heat-shock proteins (sHSP) expression in this disease, it seemed justified to assess humoral response against sHSP in AD patients. The aim of the study was to check whether AD has the ability to elicit immune response against small HSP, which could also serve as disease biomarkers. IgG and IgM autoantibodies against alpha B-crystallin and anti-HSP 60 IgG autoantibodies were assessed in 59 AD patients and 59 healthy subjects. Both IgM and IgG autoantibodies against alpha B-crystallin in AD patients were significantly higher compared to healthy controls (p < 0.05). No statistically significant differences were found between AD patients and healthy subjects were found in anti-HSP60 IgG autoantibody titers (p = 0.29). Anti-HSP60 antibodies present in AD patients may indeed belong to natural human immune repertoire, and chronic neurodegenerative process does not have significant inducing effect on the systemic immunoreactivity against HSP60. Increased titers of IgM and IgG autoantibodies against alpha B-crystallin in AD patients may reflect activation of humoral immune response in the course of this chronic disease, probably secondary to its increased expression. Further prospective studies, on larger group of AD patients and measuring a change in antibodies titers with disease progression are necessary to assess the exact role of these antibodies in AD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Medical University of Lublin, 8 Jaczewskiego Str., 20-954, Lublin, Poland. ewapap@yahoo.pl.
authors.forename: Ewa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Papuć
authors.affiliation: Second Department of Radiology, Medical University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland.
authors.forename: Witold
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Krupski
authors.affiliation: Second Department of Radiology, Medical University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland.
authors.forename: Ewa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kurys-Denis
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Medical University of Lublin, 8 Jaczewskiego Str., 20-954, Lublin, Poland.
authors.forename: Konrad
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rejdak
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000276:immunology*; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D001324:Autoantigens / Q000276:immunology; D018834:Chaperonin 60 / Q000276:immunology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D050888:Heat-Shock Proteins, Small / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D056724:Immunity, Humoral / Q000276:immunology; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D024101:Mitochondrial Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D038203:alpha-Crystallin B Chain / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D001324:Autoantigens; D018834:Chaperonin 60; C060293:HSPD1 protein, human; D050888:Heat-Shock Proteins, Small; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007075:Immunoglobulin M; D024101:Mitochondrial Proteins; D038203:alpha-Crystallin B Chain
keywords: Alpha B-crystallin; Alzheimer disease; Autoantibodies; HSP60; Humoral response; Immune system; Small heat-shock proteins