Absence of aluminium in neuritic plaque cores in Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

CONTROVERSY exists over whether aluminium has a role in the aetiology of Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease is neuropathologically characterized by the occurrence of a minimum density of neurofibrillary tangles and neuritic plaques in the hippocampus and the association cortex of the brain1,2. The purported association of aluminium with Alzheimer's disease is based on: (1) the experimental induction of fibrillary changes in the neurons of animals by the injection of aluminium salts into brain tissue3,4; (2) reported detection of aluminium in neuritic plaques5-8 and tangle-bearing neurons9,10; (3) epidemiological studies linking aluminium levels in the environment, notably water supplies, with an increased prevalence of dementia11-14; and (4) a reported decrease in the rate of disease progression following the administration of desferroxamine, an aluminium chelator, to clinically diagnosed sufferers of Alzheimer's disease15. Here we use nuclear microscopy, a new analytical technique involving million-volt nuclear particles, to identify and analyse plaques in post-mortem tissue from patients with Alzheimer's disease without using chemical staining techniques and fail to demonstrate the presence of aluminium in plaque cores in untreated tissue.