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Analysis of institutional authors

Molina-Porcel LAuthor

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April 19, 2023
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Article

Uncovering tau in wasteosomes (corpora amylacea) of Alzheimer's disease patients

Publicated to:Frontiers In Aging Neuroscience. 15 1110425- - 2023-03-30 15(), DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2023.1110425

Authors: Riba, Marta; del Valle, Jaume; Romera, Clara; Alsina, Raquel; Molina-Porcel, Laura; Pelegri, Carme; Vilaplana, Jordi

Affiliations

Alzheimer's Disease and Other Cognitive Disorders Unit, Neurology Service, Hospital Clinic, Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. - Author
Biobanc Hosp Clin IDIBAPS, Neurol Tissue Bank - Author
Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Madrid, Spain. - Author
Ctr Invest Biomed Red Enfermedades Neurodegenerat - Author
Institut de Neurociències, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. - Author
Neurological Tissue Bank of the Biobanc-Hospital Clinic-IDIBAPS, Barcelona, Spain. - Author
Secció de Fisiologia, Departament de Bioquímica i Fisiologia, Facultat de Farmàcia i Ciències de l'Alimentació, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. - Author
Univ Barcelona, Inst Neurociencies - Author
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Abstract

Brain corpora amylacea, recently renamed as wasteosomes, are polyglucosan bodies that appear during aging and some neurodegenerative conditions. They collect waste substances and are part of a brain cleaning mechanism. For decades, studies on their composition have produced inconsistent results and the presence of tau protein in them has been controversial. In this work, we reanalyzed the presence of this protein in wasteosomes and we pointed out a methodological problem when immunolabeling. It is well known that to detect tau it is necessary to perform an antigen retrieval. However, in the case of wasteosomes, an excessive antigen retrieval with boiling dissolves their polyglucosan structure, releases the entrapped proteins and, thus, prevents their detection. After performing an adequate pre-treatment, with an intermediate time of boiling, we observed that some brain wasteosomes from patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) contained tau, while we did not detect tau protein in those from non-AD patients. These observations pointed the different composition of wasteosomes depending on the neuropathological condition and reinforce the role of wasteosomes as waste containers.Copyright © 2023 Riba, del Valle, Romera, Alsina, Molina-Porcel, Pelegrí and Vilaplana.

Keywords

AgingAlzheimer diseaseAlzheimer’s diseaseAntibody labelingAntigen retrievalArticleBiological markerBiomarkersBrainControlled studyCorpora amylaceaGlucanHumanHuman tissueNeuropathologyProtein aggregationTauTau proteinTemperatureWasteosome

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2023, it was in position 81/310, thus managing to position itself as a Q2 (Segundo Cuartil), in the category Neurosciences. Notably, the journal is positioned en el Cuartil Q2 para la agencia Scopus (SJR) en la categoría Cognitive Neuroscience.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 1.51. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 4.83 (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-16, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 7
  • Scopus: 6
  • Europe PMC: 8

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-07-16:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 20.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 25 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 22.2.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 17 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions in news outlets: 1 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.