The Potential of Proteomics in Understanding Neurodegeneration

Neurodegenerative diseases are a major health concern worldwide. Diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, as well as many other diseases affecting the neuromuscular system, are a leading cause of disability in the aging population. Presymptomatic diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders is challenging due to the lack of robust biomarkers. Likewise, the design of effective intervention strategies is limited because most neurodegenerative disorders are heterogeneous in nature. Reliable noninvasive biomarkers are therefore urgently needed to allow presymptomatic and accurate diagnosis, to track disease progression, to evaluate the effectiveness of new treatment regimens, and to ultimately design new therapeutic intervention strategies. Recent biological and technological advances within the field of proteomic promises to provide insight into global proteome changes in neurodegeneration, thus allowing increased understanding of molecular pathways leading to neuronal cell death and the identification of biomarkers. The combination of gel-based techniques and mass spectrometry permits large-scale identification of peptide sequences in biological samples as well as the characterization of posttranslational protein modifications. The application of comparative high-throughput proteomic analyses in animal models and human tissues will aid in the identification of both diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers and will provide a platform for a future personalized medicine approach in neurodegeneration.