Abstract
BackgroundAbnormal activation of protease activities during experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in rats, a rodent model of multiple sclerosis, have been implicated in either the direct destruction of myelin components or the intracellular signal transduction pathways that lead to lymphocyte infiltration, oligodendrocyte destruction, neuronal dysfunctions and axonal degeneration. The identification of changes in regulated proteolytic events during EAE is crucial for uncovering activated proteases that may underline the pathological features such as inflammation and demyelination. We searched for either non-tryptic or semi-tryptic peptides from a previous shotgun proteomics study using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ) to compare the proteomes of normal and EAE rat lumbar spinal cords.ResultsWe discovered that several proteins, such as α1-macroglobulin, a protease inhibitor, α1B-glycoprotein, β2-microglobulin, neurofilament light polypeptide and sulfated glycoprotein 1 had non-tryptic peptide iTRAQ ratios that were substantially different from the overall protein iTRAQ ratios, suggesting that such peptides may be markers for the proteolytic products generated by the protease(s) altered during EAE. Indeed, subsequent Western blotting confirmed the dysregulation of specific protein cleavages in EAE tissues. Additional proteolytic changes in α2-macroglobulin, another protease inhibitor similar to α1-macroglobulin was also observed.ConclusionThe results from this study revealed changes among both neuronal protein processing and endogenous proteolysis modulators in EAE animals. This information may provide a rationale for protease inhibitor-based therapeutic interventions for multiple sclerosis.
Highlights
Abnormal activation of protease activities during experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in rats, a rodent model of multiple sclerosis, have been implicated in either the direct destruction of myelin components or the intracellular signal transduction pathways that lead to lymphocyte infiltration, oligodendrocyte destruction, neuronal dysfunctions and axonal degeneration
Proteolysis is an important means of post-translational regulation of neuronal cell function; its dysregulation may underlie the pathology of EAE and multiple sclerosis
Changes in different protease inhibitors discovered in this study, like α1M and α2M (Table 1) and their proteolytic fragments have been reported in recent proteomics searches for clinical biomarkers
Summary
Abnormal activation of protease activities during experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in rats, a rodent model of multiple sclerosis, have been implicated in either the direct destruction of myelin components or the intracellular signal transduction pathways that lead to lymphocyte infiltration, oligodendrocyte destruction, neuronal dysfunctions and axonal degeneration. The identification of changes in regulated proteolytic events during EAE is crucial for uncovering activated proteases that may underline the pathological features such as inflammation and demyelination. Regulated proteolysis events have been implicated in numerous disease-related processes, including calpain activation following excitotoxicity in neuronal cells [2], matrix metalloprotease (MMP) modulation during cancer metastasis and multiple sclerosis [3], and the contribution of rennin and angiotensin converting enzyme to regulate blood pressure and cardiovascular function [4]. Understanding how protease activities are regulated is important both for discerning basic biological mechanisms and for developing therapies that can regulate pathological protease activities
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