Applying Data‐Independent Acquisition Mass Spectrometry on Cerebrospinal Fluid Samples from a Neurology Clinic for Biomarker Discovery in Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundDiagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) primarily relies on cognitive assessments combined with imaging and limited fluid biomarkers. These biomarkers do not correlate with cognitive prognosis. Analysis of larger sets of biomarkers could improve diagnosis and prognosis of AD and differentiate between comorbid pathophysiologies, and measure treatment efficacy. Here, we report analysis of a Data‐independent Acquisition (DIA) mass‐spectrometry method used to simultaneously quantify hundreds of proteins in a large‐scale patient cohort. We aim to define markers that are able to stratify and diagnose AD in this clinically complex cohort.MethodSamples from 408 patients spanning various dementia diagnoses were collected from the Massachusetts General Hospital Lumbar Puncture clinic. The patient cohort consisted of ATN‐verified cognitively‐unimpaired (n = 81), mild‐cognitive impairment from AD (n = 116), mild‐cognitive impairment from other causes (n = 78), dementia from AD (n = 65) and dementia from other causes (n = 31). Samples were analyzed on an Orbitrap Fusion using a DIA method and raw files were searched using Scaffold‐DIA.ResultAnalyses of the method’s technical performance showed a median intrabatch CV of 24.7% which decreased to 17.5% after filtering for peptides expressed in 95% of all samples. The mean interbatch CV was 73.7% which reduced to 28.8% after ComBat batch‐correction. After filtering for missing values and selecting only the peptides with a mean intrabatch CV below 25%, our dataset consists of 1761 unique peptide sequences belonging to 516 proteins.To determine the differential abundance of peptides we fit a linear regression model to the data. 572 peptides were found to be differentially abundant across all diagnoses compared to AD (padj < 0.05). 11 of these peptides belonging to 5 proteins (PKM, ALDOA, GUAD, BASP1 and CH3L1) were differentially abundant between AD and all non‐AD diagnoses, suggesting specificity for AD. PKM and ALDOA, are involved in regulation of balance between glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation, potentially indicating a shift in brain metabolism in AD.ConclusionTechnically robust unbiased mass‐spectrometry can highlight novel AD specific biomarkers which may reflect pathophysiological processes key to AD progression.