Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36635465›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2023

Potentially toxic elements in the brains of people with multiple sclerosis.

Roger Pamphlett, Michael E Buckland, David P Bishop

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
9citing papers in PubMed
3.2field-weighted citation impact, top 8% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

9 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
  2. Article
  3. Genomic Impacts of Biological Exposures.Journal of developmental biology · 2026
    Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Demyelination and impaired oligodendrogenesis in the corpus callosum following lead exposure.Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology · 2024
    Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Roger PamphlettDiscipline of Pathology, Sydney Medical School, Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia. roger.pamphlett@sydney.edu.au.ORCID 0000-0003-3326-7273
Michael E BucklandDiscipline of Pathology, Sydney Medical School, Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.ORCID 0000-0003-4755-6471
David P BishopHyphenated Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-6533-4410
University of Technology Sydney · AUThe University of Sydney · AU

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Potentially toxic elements such as lead and aluminium have been proposed to play a role in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS), since their neurotoxic mechanisms mimic many of the pathogenetic processes in MS. We therefore examined the distribution of several potentially toxic elements in the autopsied brains of people with and without MS, using two methods of elemental bio-imaging. Toxicants detected in the locus ceruleus were used as indicators of past exposures. Autometallography of paraffin sections from multiple brain regions of 21 MS patients and 109 controls detected inorganic mercury, silver, or bismuth in many locus ceruleus neurons of both groups, and in widespread blood vessels, oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, and neurons of four MS patients and one control. Laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry imaging of pons paraffin sections from all MS patients and 12 controls showed that combinations of iron, silver, lead, aluminium, mercury, nickel, and bismuth were present more often in the locus ceruleus of MS patients and were located predominantly in white matter tracts. Based on these results, we propose that metal toxicants in locus ceruleus neurons weaken the blood-brain barrier, enabling multiple interacting toxicants to pass through blood vessels and enter astrocytes and oligodendroglia, leading to demyelination.

Indexed as

MercuryMultiple SclerosisAluminumBismuthBrainHazardous SubstancesHumansParaffinSilverAluminumBismuthHazardous SubstancesMercuryParaffinSilver

Identifiers

PMID36635465
PMCPMC9837144
OpenAlexW4315780065

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.