Secció de Fisiologia, Departament de Bioquímica i Fisiologia, Facultat de Farmàcia i Ciències de l'Alimentació, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Institut de Neurociències, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Sci Rep. 2018 Sep 10;8(1):13525. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-31766-y.
Corpora amylacea (CA) are polyglucosan bodies that accumulate in the human brain during ageing and are also present in large numbers in neurodegenerative conditions. Theories regarding the function of CA are regularly updated as new components are described. In previous work, we revealed the presence of some neo-epitopes in CA and the existence of some natural IgM antibodies directed against these neo-epitopes. We also noted that these neo-epitopes and IgMs were the cause of false staining in CA immunohistochemical studies, and disproved the proposed presence of β-amyloid peptides and tau protein in them. Here we extend the list of components erroneously attributed to CA. We show that, contrary to previous descriptions, CA do not contain GFAP, S100, AQP4, NeuN or class III β-tubulin, and we question the presence of other components. Nonetheless, we observe that CA contains ubiquitin and p62, both of them associated with processes of elimination of waste substances, and also glycogen synthase, an indispensable enzyme for polyglucosan formation. In summary, this study shows that it is imperative to continue reviewing previous studies about CA but, more importantly, it shows that the vision of CA as structures involved in protective or cleaning mechanisms remains the most consistent theory.
脑砂（CA）是多聚糖体，在人类大脑老化过程中积累，在神经退行性疾病中也大量存在。随着新成分的描述，关于 CA 的功能理论不断更新。在之前的工作中，我们揭示了 CA 中存在一些新表位，以及针对这些新表位的一些天然 IgM 抗体。我们还注意到，这些新表位和 IgM 是 CA 免疫组化研究中出现假阳性染色的原因，并证明了它们不存在 β-淀粉样肽和 tau 蛋白。在这里，我们扩展了错误归因于 CA 的成分列表。我们表明，与之前的描述相反，CA 不包含 GFAP、S100、AQP4、NeuN 或 III 类 β-微管蛋白，我们对其他成分的存在提出质疑。尽管如此，我们观察到 CA 含有泛素和 p62，它们都与清除废物物质的过程有关，还含有糖原合酶，这是多聚糖体形成所必需的酶。总之，这项研究表明，继续审查之前关于 CA 的研究至关重要，但更重要的是，它表明 CA 作为参与保护或清洁机制的结构的观点仍然是最一致的理论。
