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The FindMNDBiomarker Program: Protein Changes in Motor Neuron Disease/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Postmortem Tissue
Gabrielle L Adler1,2, Matthew C Kiernan3,4, Rachel H Tan1,2
1School of Medical Sciences (Neuroscience), Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia.
Objective:
Biomarkers of disease pathogenesis are critically needed for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) to facilitate diagnosis and patient stratification into appropriate therapeutic trials. Proteomic studies offer significant potential to advance this, but reproducibility across laboratories is a key component toward identifying protein changes that can be translated into clinical applications.
Methods:
A combined analysis of 25 proteomic studies in human ALS biospecimens was performed to identify proteins consistently altered in ALS postmortem tissue, cerebrospinal fluid, or blood, as well as across primary regions of ALS pathology and peripheral biofluids. We consolidated these datasets into a user-friendly database "FindMND Biomarker," which is an accessible search tool that allows users to quickly determine how often, and in which biospecimen types, their proteins of interest are dysregulated in patients with ALS.
Results:
Our combined analysis identified 1,458 altered proteins in ALS, and revealed consistent dysregulation in mitochondrial, cytoplasmic, and RNA binding proteins in primary and later affected regions of ALS pathology. Remarkable consistency in the direction and dysregulation of chitinases and gelsolin proteins were observed across ALS biofluids. Comparisons of postmortem tissue and biofluids reinforce several known protein changes, and highlighted novel proteins of interest that may drive disease pathogenesis.
Interpretation:
The biospecimen type in which protein dysregulation is most consistently identified provides important insight into disease, and whether these represent potential measures of disease pathogenesis or systemic changes. By streamlining proteins by reproducibility and biospecimen type, FindMNDBiomarker is a useful resource that provides new mechanistic insights, and facilitates the prioritization of ALS-associated proteins for further validation and investigation. ANN NEUROL 2025;98:788-800.
