Proteomic Characterization of Cerebrospinal Fluid from Ataxia-Telangiectasia (A-T) Patients Using a LC/MS-Based Label-Free Protein Quantification Technology

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) has been used for biomarker discovery of neurodegenerative diseases in humans since biological changes in the brain can be seen in this biofluid. Inactivation of A-T-mutated protein (ATM), a multifunctional protein kinase, is responsible for A-T, yet biochemical studies have not succeeded in conclusively identifying the molecular mechanism(s) underlying the neurodegeneration seen in A-T patients or the proteins that can be used as biomarkers for neurologic assessment of A-T or as potential therapeutic targets. In this study, we applied a high-throughput LC/MS-based label-free protein quantification technology to quantitatively characterize the proteins in CSF samples in order to identify differentially expressed proteins that can serve as potential biomarker candidates for A-T. Among 204 identified CSF proteins with high peptide-identification confidence, thirteen showed significant protein expression changes. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that these 13 proteins are either involved in neurodegenerative disorders or cancer. Future molecular and functional characterization of these proteins would provide more insights into the potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of A-T and the biomarkers that can be used to monitor or predict A-T disease progression. Clinical validation studies are required before any of these proteins can be developed into clinically useful biomarkers.