Demonstration of a novel neurofilament associated antigen with the neurofibrillary pathology of Alzheimer and related diseases.

A monoclonal antibody, termed NFT200, was raised after in vitro immunization with sonicated neurofibrillary tangle (NFT)-enriched fractions prepared from Alzheimer brain. The antigen to which NFT200 is directed was expressed in the paired helical filaments of NFT in sporadic and familial Alzheimer disease (AD), in the straight filaments of NFT in AD, progressive supranuclear palsy and of Pick bodies, and the NFT in several other conditions such as Parkinson-dementia complex of Guam and subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. Granulovacuolar degeneration of AD was also labeled with NFT200. Hirano bodies and amyloid deposits in AD, as well as Lewy bodies of idiopathic Parkinson disease lacked in the antigen. The NFT200-antigen was also expressed as a phosphatase-insensitive antigen in normal neurofilaments found in spinal cord and peripheral nerve axons but was absent from the perikaryal accumulation of neurofilaments induced by aluminum intoxication. Nevertheless, immunoblot studies failed to detect the NFT200 in isolated preparations of the neurofilament proteins, MAP-2, tau, ubiquitin or A4-amyloid peptide. The results indicate that the NFT200 monoclonal antibody is directed against a phosphatase-insensitive epitope of an axonal protein associated with neurofilaments but is labile to isolation and expressed as a stable epitope of a 200 kDa component of NFT.