High throughput approaches in neuroscience

Abstract

Traditional approaches to understanding biological problems are now being advanced with the use of high throughput technologies, which analyse multiple samples simultaneously, or thousands of analytes in a single sample. The application of these technologies in neurochemistry and neuroscience is beginning to be explored and is assisting in the development of new models of drug action, neuroanatomical investigations, and in identifying molecular pathways involved in neurological and psychiatric disease. Tools such as microarray-based gene expression profiling and 2D and multidimensional proteomic methods are uncovering functional components to a wide variety of neuroscience paradigms and the application of these technologies is set to become standard in analysis.

Redox Proteomics: A New Approach to Investigate Oxidative Stress in Alzheimer's Disease

“…Many high-throughput methods are being developed in order to improve sensitivity and detection limit of 2D gel electrophoresis (Morris and Wilson, 2004) that will enable researchers to detect low abundant proteins. When such techniques mature, a large body of information will become available to better understand the disease and to develop biomarkers for diagnosis and for indexing therapeutic efficacy.…”

Use of surface enhanced laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF MS) to study protein expression in a rat model of cocaine withdrawal

“…Current discovery approaches in proteomics have enabled researchers to analyze hundreds of proteins (and/or their peptide fragments) simultaneously and rapidly (Morris and Wilson, 2004). However, while the simultaneous study of numerous proteins in a cell, tissue or organism (Fountoulakis, 2004) is of great interest and has been applied to a large variety of studies, many of these new methodologies are still under development and need to be continually validated as the tools are applied to novel systems or to answer novel questions.…”

Approaches for targeted proteomics and its potential applications in neuroscience

“…Various approaches have been developed to identify differential proteomic profiling in a single run using LC-MS/MS, one of them being the ICAT method. This technique takes the benefit of differential isotope labelling of proteins from two biological states followed by combining the two samples to permit direct comparison of protein levels within a single experiment (Wasinger and Corthals 2002;Morris and Wilson 2004). To date, most of the research on differential proteomic expression using LC-MS/MS targeted a specific tissue such as tumours, biological fluids, brain, liver, heart, Figure 6.…”

“…On the other hand, 'functional proteomics' illustrates protein interactions and its activity, and the existence of PTMs. Thus, an ideal proteomics technology would possess superior sensitivity and high-throughput with the ability to distinguish and identify modified proteins present in a sample (Morris and Wilson 2004). In this review article, we will outline the existing proteomic technologies used in differential proteomics in profiling and functional proteomics, along with their inferences for neuroscience.…”