Combined analysis of the glia secretome and the CSF proteome: neuroinflammation and novel biomarkers

Abstract

Glial cells in the CNS are likely to communicate with other glial cells and neurons through secreted proteins. Glia-derived proteins also participate in neuroinflammation, which is a major component of neurodegenerative disease. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is the biological fluid that best reflects the physiological or pathological conditions of the CNS. Proteins secreted from glial cells are often detected in the CSF. One of the major cellular sources of the highly abundant CSF proteins is glia. Combined analysis of secreted proteins of glial cells and CSF proteins of patients with inflammatory CNS disorders can provide new knowledge to the field of glia biology and neuron–glia interaction. The comparative analysis of the glia secretome and the CSF proteome would also facilitate the targeted proteomics-based discovery of new biomarkers for brain disease. Omics and systems biology approaches to glia and neuroinflammation will be a focus of future investigation and will enable an integrative understanding of inflammatory CNS disorders, such as neurodegenerative disease.

Keywords::

• biomarker
• cerebrospinal fluid
• CNS
• glia
• neurodegenerative disease
• neuroinflammation
• omics
• proteome
• secretome
• systems biology

Acknowledgement

I apologize to authors whose works were not cited here due to space limitations. I am indebted to Hyejin Jeon and Jihye Choi for the preparation of the boxes and table in this article.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Kyoungho Suk’s laboratory was supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) grant (No. 2010-0000337) funded by the Korean government (MEST) and the Bio R&D program through the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2008-04090). The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Notes

✓ Indicates proteins identified in all four previous studies [49,52,53,75].

Data from [52,53,75].

Mixed glia-conditioned media and human cerebrospinal fluid were analyzed by 1D gel electrophoresis and liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. Proteins identified in both glia-conditioned media and cerebrospinal fluid are listed.