4.7 Article

A new strategy to uncover fragile X proteomic biomarkers using the nascent proteome of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs)

Journal

SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Volume 11, Issue 1, Pages -

Publisher

NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-94027-5

Keywords

-

Funding

  1. Centre de Recherche du CHUS
  2. Foundation of the Stars
  3. Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship Master Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
  4. Fonds de Recherche du Quebec-Sante (FRQS)

Ask authors/readers for more resources

Fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited cause of intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorders, characterized by a wide range of behavioral, cognitive, and metabolic impairments with significant phenotypic heterogeneity among patients. Current tools for patient prognosis are lacking, leading researchers to identify potential proteomic biomarkers through analyzing the nascent proteome. This study suggests that the nascent proteome of PBMCs is a promising avenue for discovering biomarkers of FXS.
Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most prevalent inherited cause of intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorders. FXS result from the loss of expression of the FMRP protein, an RNA-binding protein that regulates the expression of key synaptic effectors. FXS is also characterized by a wide array of behavioural, cognitive and metabolic impairments. The severity and penetrance of those comorbidities are extremely variable, meaning that a considerable phenotypic heterogeneity is found among fragile X individuals. Unfortunately, clinicians currently have no tools at their disposal to assay a patient prognosis upon diagnosis. Since the absence of FMRP was repeatedly associated with an aberrant protein synthesis, we decided to study the nascent proteome in order to screen for potential proteomic biomarkers of FXS. We used a BONCAT (Biorthogonal Non-canonical Amino Acids Tagging) method coupled to label-free mass spectrometry to purify and quantify nascent proteins of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 7 fragile X male patients and 7 age-matched controls. The proteomic analysis identified several proteins which were either up or downregulated in PBMCs from FXS individuals. Eleven of those proteins were considered as potential biomarkers, of which 5 were further validated by Western blot. The gene ontology enrichment analysis highlighted molecular pathways that may contribute to FXS physiopathology. Our results suggest that the nascent proteome of PBMCs is well suited for the discovery of FXS biomarkers.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.7
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available