Neuroproteomics: relevance to anxiety disorders

Despite advances in the treatment of anxiety disorders, there is a need for medications with greater efficacy and fewer side effects. Advances in techniques to facilitate high throughput, mass analysis of proteins potentially allows for new drug targets, with a shift in focus from membrane receptor proteins and enzymes of neurotransmitter metabolism to molecules in intracellular signal transduction and other pathways. A computerized literature search was done to collect studies on recently developed proteomic techniques and their application in psychiatric research. Particular techniques, such as two-dimensional electrophoresis, two-dimensional differential gel electrophoresis, isotope-coded affinity tags, and isotope tags for relative and absolute quantification, are reviewed. In addition, a combination of these techniques with MALDI-TOF/TOF and ESI-Q-TOF mass spectrometry analysis is discussed in relation to possible novel signaling pathways relevant to anxiety disorders, and to the development of biomarkers for the evaluation of these conditions.