Abstract
Alzheimer’s disease is becoming an increasing problem in our aging society. According to our knowledge, so far, no effective pharmacotherapy to cure the cause of the disease has been developed. Therefore, early diagnosis is needed, which will result in implementation of a drug therapy aimed at decreasing and/or inhibiting disease development. Mass spectrometry techniques (MS) have a wide range of applications in proteomics and the search for biomarkers of neurodegenerative disorders, opening new possibilities in diagnostics. Identification of proteins in body fluids (like cerebrospinal fluid or blood) is possible due to MS spectra analysis. The detected changes in protein concentrations are connected with pathological states in an organism and, therefore, can be regarded as biomarkers. Developing procedures for proteome analysis might result in fast diagnosis, as well as creating better suited pharmaceuticals. This paper reviews the search of biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid and blood. Later on, the use of matrix-assisted-laser-desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) in proteomics, focusing on blood-related biomarkers, is discussed. The aim of the work is also to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of MALDI-TOF-based analyses.
About the authors
Agatha Grela obtained her MSc at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, in analytical chemistry (2010) and she is a PhD student there. Her master’s degree research was undertaken at the Laboratory of Analytical Toxicology and Monitored Therapy (Department of Toxicology and Environmental Diseases) at the Medical College of the Jagiellonian University. In 2010, she had a monthly internship in the Crime Lab of Criminal Intelligence Service Austria. Her prime interest is metabolomics in neuropsychiatric diseases, especially depression.
Agata Turek obtained her BSc at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, in analytical chemistry (2011), where she is a master’s student. In 2011, she won a scholarship that enabled her to do a monthly internship at the Department of Forensic Medicine of the Medical University of Silesia in Katowice. Additionally to studying chemistry, she studies medical analytics at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Jagiellonian University.
Wojciech Piekoszewski is a Professor of Medical Sciences with a second degree specialization in Toxicology. He is the Head of the Toxicological and Pharmaceutical Analysis Group in the Department of Analytical Chemistry and the Head of the Laboratory of High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry, Regional Laboratory of Physicochemical Analysis and Structural Research of the Faculty of Chemistry, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.
He graduated and obtained his PhD and DSc at the Medical College of the Jagiellonian University. He spent 6 months at the Institute of Toxicology and Pharmacology at the University of Wurzburg, Germany, on postdoctoral fellowship, and 30 months as a visiting Professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
W. Piekoszewski’s scientific interests are in the application of metabolomics and lipidomics as tools for diagnosis of mental and neurodegenerative disorders, and analysis of drugs and medicaments in biological materials. He is a European Registered Toxicologist.
To date he has authored over 100 scientific publications.
©2012 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
