Elevated brain aluminium and early onset Alzheimer’s disease in an individual occupationally exposed to aluminium: a case report

Christopher Exley,Thomas Vickers

doi:10.1186/1752-1947-8-41

Abstract

IntroductionAluminium is a known neurotoxin and occupational exposure to aluminium has been implicated in neurological disease including Alzheimer’s disease. Here we present the first comprehensive and unequivocal data demonstrating significantly elevated brain aluminium content in an individual occupationally exposed to aluminium.Case presentationA 66-year-old Caucasian man who died with Alzheimer’s disease showed significantly elevated brain aluminium content, 2.98 (2.73) μg/g dry weight, n = 46, following occupational exposure to aluminium over a period of 8 years.ConclusionsThat the individual developed an early onset aggressive form of Alzheimer’s disease suggests a role for aluminium in disease aetiology. That the exposure to aluminium was through occupational exposure to aluminium dust suggests a prominent role for the olfactory system and lungs in the accumulation of aluminium in the brain.

Highlights

Aluminium is a known neurotoxin and occupational exposure to aluminium has been implicated in neurological disease including Alzheimer’s disease
By 1999 he started to show problems in relation to memory and suffered depression. Following his death, aged 66, in 2011, at the request of the family and the local coroner, samples of his brain tissue were sent to the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford University, UK, for clinical diagnosis and a section of deep frozen frontal lobe was sent to Professor C Exley (Keele University, UK) for determination of tissue aluminium
The data are revealing in respect of the wide range of aluminium contents recorded, confirming the suspected focal accumulation of aluminium in human brain tissue, and in respect of a mean value for 46 samples, 2.98μg/g dry weight, which is more than three times higher than a mean value, 0.83μg/g dry weight, previously recorded for multiple samples of frontal lobe from multiple individuals [8]

Summary

Conclusions

It is extremely rare to be given approximately 20g of brain tissue for elemental analysis This opportunity enabled the most thorough analysis of the aluminium content of a single brain region from one individual ever undertaken. High brain tissue aluminium was implicated in a recent case of congophilic amyloid angiopathy where disease onset was again very early and disease pathology postmortem was highly advanced in an individual in their late 50s [9]. Doi:10.1186/1752-1947-8-41 Cite this article as: Exley and Vickers: Elevated brain aluminium and early onset Alzheimer’s disease in an individual occupationally exposed to aluminium: a case report. TV and CE agreed with the final version of the manuscript Both authors read and approved the final manuscript. Author details 1The Birchall Centre, Lennard-Jones Laboratories, Keele University, Staffordshire, UK. Author details 1The Birchall Centre, Lennard-Jones Laboratories, Keele University, Staffordshire, UK. 2The Huxley Building, Life Sciences, Keele University, Staffordshire, UK

Introduction

Exley C