Phosphoproteome Microarray Analysis of Extracellular Particles as a Tool to Explore Novel Biomarker Candidates for Alzheimer’s Disease

Phosphorylation plays a key role in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathogenesis, impacting distinct processes such as amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptide production and tau phosphorylation. Impaired phosphorylation events contribute to senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles’ formation, two major histopathological hallmarks of AD. Blood-derived extracellular particles (bdEP) can represent a disease-related source of phosphobiomarker candidates, and hence, in this pilot study, bdEP of Control and AD cases were analyzed by a targeted phosphoproteomics approach using a high-density microarray that featured at least 1145 pan-specific and 913 phosphosite-specific antibodies. This approach, innovatively applied to bdEP, allowed the identification of 150 proteins whose expression levels and/or phosphorylation patterns were significantly altered across AD cases. Gene Ontology enrichment and Reactome pathway analysis unraveled potentially relevant molecular targets and disease-associated pathways, and protein-protein interaction networks were constructed to highlight key targets. The discriminatory value of both the total proteome and the phosphoproteome was evaluated by univariate and multivariate approaches. This pilot experiment supports that bdEP are enriched in phosphotargets relevant in an AD context, holding value as peripheral biomarker candidates for disease diagnosis.