Mining the human cerebrospinal fluid proteome by immunodepletion and shotgun mass spectrometry

We have analyzed the proteome of human cerebrospinal fluid with the help of shotgun mass spectrometry. In order to identify low-abundant proteins in these fluids, we have found it necessary to remove the abundant protein components from the mixture. Immunodepletion of the abundant proteins has allowed us to identify more than 100 proteins in cerebrospinal fluids from a patient suffering from normal pressure hydrocephalus. The identified proteins belong to a variety of different classes ranging from serum proteins to intracellular mediators that are involved in signal transduction and transcription. This work establishes a platform for future studies aimed at the comparative proteome analysis of cerebrospinal fluids from different groups of patients suffering from various psychiatric and neurological disorders.