Ann Brinkmalm

Clinical proteomics in neurodegenerative disorders.

Neurodegenerative disorders are characterized by neuronal impairment that eventually leads to neuronal death. In spite of the brain’s known capacity for regeneration, lost neurons are difficult to replace. Therefore, drugs aimed at inhibiting neurodegenerative processes are likely to be most effective if the treatment is initiated as early as possible. However, clinical manifestations in early disease stages are often numerous, subtle and difficult to diagnose. This is where biomarkers that specifically reflect onset of pathology, directly or indirectly, may have a profound impact on diagnosis making in the future. A triplet of biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), total and hyperphosphorylated tau and the 42 amino acid isoform of β‐amyloid, has already been established for early detection of AD before the onset of dementia. However, more biomarkers are needed both for AD and for other neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. This review provides an update on recent advances in clinical neuroproteomics, a biomarker discovery field that has expanded immensely during the last decade, and gives an overview of the most commonly used techniques and the major clinically relevant findings these techniques have lead to.

SNAP-25 is a promising novel cerebrospinal fluid biomarker for synapse degeneration in Alzheimer’s disease

BackgroundSynaptic degeneration is an early pathogenic event in Alzheimer’s disease, associated with cognitive impairment and disease progression. Cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers reflecting synaptic integrity would be highly valuable tools to monitor synaptic degeneration directly in patients. We previously showed that synaptic proteins such as synaptotagmin and synaptosomal-associated protein 25 (SNAP-25) could be detected in pooled samples of cerebrospinal fluid, however these assays were not sensitive enough for individual samples.ResultsWe report a new strategy to study synaptic pathology by using affinity purification and mass spectrometry to measure the levels of the presynaptic protein SNAP-25 in cerebrospinal fluid. By applying this novel affinity mass spectrometry strategy on three separate cohorts of patients, the value of SNAP-25 as a cerebrospinal fluid biomarker for synaptic integrity in Alzheimer’s disease was assessed for the first time. We found significantly higher levels of cerebrospinal fluid SNAP-25 fragments in Alzheimer’s disease, even in the very early stages, in three separate cohorts. Cerebrospinal fluid SNAP-25 differentiated Alzheimer’s disease from controls with area under the curve of 0.901 (Pu2009<u20090.0001).ConclusionsWe developed a sensitive method to analyze SNAP-25 levels in individual CSF samples that to our knowledge was not possible previously. Our results support the notion that synaptic biomarkers may be important tools for early diagnosis, assessment of disease progression, and to monitor drug effects in treatment trials.

Processing of neuropeptide Y, galanin, and somatostatin in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia

Alzheimers disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are two prevalent neurodegenerative disorders for which the causes are unknown, except in rare familial cases. Several changes in neuropeptide levels as measured by radioimmunoassay (RIA) have been observed in these illnesses. Somatostatin (SOM) levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are consistently decreased in AD and FTD. Neuropeptide Y (NPY) levels are decreased in AD, but normal in FTD. Galanin (GAL) levels increase with the duration of illness in AD patients. The majority of studies of neuropeptides in CSF have not been verified by HPLC. The observed decrease in a neuropeptide level as measured by RIA may therefore reflect an altered synthesis or extracellular processing, resulting in neuropeptide fragments that may or may not be detected by RIA. Matrix-assisted laser desorption time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) has been shown to be a powerful technique in the analysis of biological materials without any pre-treatment, by detecting peptides and proteins at a specific mass-to-charge (m/z) ratio. We studied the processing of the neuropeptides NPY, NPY, SOM and GAL in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with AD (n = 3), FTD (n = 3) and controls (n = 2) using MALDI-MS. We found that considerable inter-individual variability exists in the rate of neuropeptide metabolism in CSF, as well as the number of peptide fragments formed. Certain patients showed differences in the processing of specific neuropeptides, relative to other patients and controls. This analysis of the metabolic processing of neuropeptides in CSF yielded a large amount of data for each individual studied. Further studies are required to determine the changes in neuropeptide processing that can be associated with AD and FTD. With further investigations using MALDI-MS analysis, it may be possible to identify a neuropeptide fragment or processing enzyme that can be correlated to these disease states.

An online nano‐LC‐ESI‐FTICR‐MS method for comprehensive characterization of endogenous fragments from amyloid β and amyloid precursor protein in human and cat cerebrospinal fluid

Amyloid precursor protein (APP) is the precursor protein to amyloid β (Aβ), the main constituent of senile plaques in Alzheimers disease (AD). Endogenous Aβ peptides reflect the APP processing, and greater knowledge of different APP degradation pathways is important to understand the mechanism underlying AD pathology. When one analyzes longer Aβ peptides by low-energy collision-induced dissociation tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), mainly long b-fragments are observed, limiting the possibility to determine variations such as amino acid variants or post-translational modifications (PTMs) within the N-terminal half of the peptide. However, by using electron capture dissociation (ECD), we obtained a more comprehensive sequence coverage for several APP/Aβ peptide species, thus enabling a deeper characterization of possible variants and PTMs. Abnormal APP/Aβ processing has also been described in the lysosomal storage disease Niemann-Pick type C and the major large animal used for studying this disease is cat. By ECD MS/MS, a substitution of Asp7 → Glu in cat Aβ was identified. Further, sialylated core 1 like O-glycans at Tyr10, recently discovered in human Aβ (a previously unknown glycosylation type), were identified also in cat cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). It is therefore likely that this unusual type of glycosylation is common for (at least) species belonging to the magnorder Boreoeutheria. We here describe a detailed characterization of endogenous APP/Aβ peptide species in CSF by using an online top-down MS-based method.

Soluble amyloid precursor protein alpha and beta in CSF in Alzheimer's disease

OBJECTIVEnCerebral accumulation of amyloid β (Aβ) is a pathological hallmark of Alzheimers disease (AD). Proteolytic processing of amyloid precursor protein (APP) by α- or β-secretase results in two soluble metabolites, sAPPα and sAPPβ, respectively. However, previous data have shown that both α- and β-secretase have multiple cleavage sites. The aim of this study was to characterize the C-termini of sAPPα and sAPPβ in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) by mass spectrometry (MS) and to evaluate whether different combinations of these fragments better separate between AD patients and controls by comparing two different sAPP immunoassays.nnnMETHODSnUsing immunoprecipitation and high resolution MS, the APP species present in CSF were investigated. CSF levels of sAPPα and sAPPβ from patients with AD (n=43) and from non-demented controls (n=44) were measured using AlphaLISA and MSD immunoassays that employ different antibodies for C-terminal recognition of sAPPα.nnnRESULTSnFour different C-terminal forms of sAPP were identified, sAPPβ-M671, sAPPβ-Y681, sAPPα-Q686, and sAPPα-K687 (APP770 numbering). Neither immunoassay for the sAPP species could separate the two patient groups. The correlation (R(2)) between the two immunoassays was 0.41 for sAPPα and 0.45 for sAPPβ.nnnCONCLUSIONnUsing high resolution MS, we show here for the first time that sAPPα in CSF ends at Q686 and K687. The findings also support the conclusion from several previous studies that sAPPα and sAPPβ levels are unaltered in AD.

Explorative and targeted neuroproteomics in Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimers disease (AD) is a progressive brain amyloidosis that injures brain regions involved in memory consolidation and other higher brain functions. Neuropathologically, the disease is characterized by accumulation of a 42 amino acid peptide called amyloid β (Aβ42) in extracellular senile plaques, intraneuronal inclusions of hyperphosphorylated tau protein in neurofibrillary tangles, and neuronal and axonal degeneration and loss. Biomarker assays capturing these pathologies have been developed for use on cerebrospinal fluid samples but there are additional molecular pathways that most likely contribute to the neurodegeneration and full clinical expression of AD. One way of learning more about AD pathogenesis is to identify novel biomarkers for these pathways and examine them in longitudinal studies of patients in different stages of the disease. Here, we discuss targeted proteomic approaches to study AD and AD-related pathologies in closer detail and explorative approaches to discover novel pathways that may contribute to the disease. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Neuroproteomics: Applications in neuroscience and neurology.

Mass spectrometric characterization of amyloid-β species in the 7PA2 cell model of Alzheimer's disease.

The Chinese hamster ovary cell line 7PA2, stably transfected with the 751 amino acid isoform of amyloid-β protein precursor (AβPP) containing the Val → Phe mutation at residue 717, is one of the most used models to study the biochemistry and toxicity of secreted amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides, particularly Aβ oligomers, which are considered to be of relevance to the pathogenesis of Alzheimers disease. Here, we present a detailed immunochemical and mass spectrometric characterization of primary structures of Aβ peptides secreted by 7PA2 cells. Immunoprecipitation and western blot of 7PA2 cell culture media revealed abundant anti-Aβ immunoreactive bands in the molecular weight range of 4-20 kDa. Mass spectrometric analysis showed that these bands contain several AβPP/Aβ peptides, starting at the N-terminal of the Aβ sequence and extending across the BACE1 cleavage site. Treatment of cells with a BACE1 inhibitor decreased the abundance of the Aβ monomer band by western blot and resulted in lower levels of Aβ1-40, Aβ1-42, and sAβPPβ as measured by ELISA. However, western blot bands thought to represent oligomers of Aβ increased in response to BACE1 inhibition. This increase was paralleled by the emergence of N-terminally truncated Aβ species (Aβ5-40 in particular) and Aβ species that spanned the β-secretase site in AβPP according to mass spectrometric analyses. The formation of these AβPP/Aβ peptides may have implications for the use of the 7PA2 cell line as a model for Aβ pathology. The enzyme(s) responsible for this particular BACE1-independent AβPP-processing remains to be identified.

Targeting synaptic pathology with a novel affinity mass spectrometry approach.

We report a novel strategy for studying synaptic pathology by concurrently measuring levels of four SNARE complex proteins from individual brain tissue samples. This method combines affinity purification and mass spectrometry and can be applied directly for studies of SNARE complex proteins in multiple species or modified to target other key elements in neuronal function. We use the technique to demonstrate altered levels of presynaptic proteins in Alzheimer disease patients and prion-infected mice.

A Parallel Reaction Monitoring Mass Spectrometric Method for Analysis of Potential CSF Biomarkers for Alzheimer's Disease

The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a parallel reaction monitoring mass spectrometry (PRM‐MS) assay consisting of a panel of potential protein biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

Targeting LAMP2 in human cerebrospinal fluid with a combination of immunopurification and high resolution parallel reaction monitoring mass spectrometry

AbstractBackgroundnAlzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia. An increasing body of evidence suggests that endo-lysosomal dysfunction is a pathogenic mechanism of Alzheimer’s disease. Thus there is a potential for proteins involved in the normal function of endo-lysosomal vesicles to act as biomarkers of disease. Herein we focused on the lysosomal protein LAMP2 that is involved in chaperone mediated autophagy.ResultsUsing a combination of immunoprecipitation, digestion and nano-liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry we targeted and identified six tryptic LAMP2 peptides in human cerebrospinal fluid. Employing the identified proteotypic tryptic peptides a hybrid immunoprecipitation high resolution parallel reaction monitoring mass spectrometric method was developed for the relative quantitation of LAMP2. The method was evaluated in a number of experiments which defined the overall methodological as well as the analytical micro-liquid chromatography mass spectrometric intra- and inter-day variability. We identified an overall methodological peptide dependent intra-day variability of 8–16xa0%. The inter-day experiments showed similar results. The analytical contribution to the variation was minor with a coefficient of variation of 0.5–2.1xa0%, depending on the peptide. Using the developed method, with defined and limited variability, we report increased cerebrospinal fluid levels of three LAMP2 peptides in Alzheimer’s disease subjects (nxa0=xa014), as compared to non-Alzheimer’s disease controls (nxa0=xa014).ConclusionAltered LAMP2 levels in cerebrospinal fluid may indicate endo-lysosomal dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease. However, further studies in larger cohorts comprised of well-defined patient materials are required. We here present a tool which can be used for exploring the relevance of the level of LAMP2 as a potential measure of lysosomal dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease or other neurodegenerative diseases.