Biometallic elements in the human brain?

DOI: 10.1126 / sciadv.abf6707

Explanation

This study will focus on the brain chemistry of patients with Alzheimer's disease.

The chemistry of copper and iron, which are also thought to play an important role in normal brain function, is controlled by a variety of enzymes and proteins containing positively charged Cu +, Cu 2+, Fe 2+, and Fe 3+ that regulate key processes, catalyzing oxidative metabolism and the production of neurotransmitters and neuropeptides.

In this study, discoveries involving metallic copper elements (in the zero oxidation state) and the ferromagnetic element iron were observed in the human brain. These nanoscale biometallic deposits were identified within amyloid plaque cores isolated from Alzheimer's disease subjects using synchrotron X-ray spectroscopic microscopy.

The surfaces of the metallic copper and iron nanodeposits were highly reactive and had distinctly different chemical and magnetic properties from their major oxide counterparts. The discovery of the elemental forms of the metals in the brain will be content to have raised new questions about their formation and their role in neurochemistry, neurobiology, and the etiology of neurodegenerative diseases.