Advances in human brain proteomics analysis of neurodegenerative diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by progressive loss of neurons manifested as motor dysfunction and/or cognitive decline. Aberrant protein aggregation with altered physicochemical properties occurs in most neurodegenerative diseases. The pathophysiological mechanisms leading to the onset and progress of neurodegenerative diseases are still not fully understood. On the one hand, limited studies investigate neurodegenerative disease from human brain tissues. On the other, a comprehensive and efficient analysis method is needed to detect the signaling pathways evolved in neurodegenerative disease. Proteomics on human brains identifies key diagnostic biomarkers and treatment/therapeutic targets of neurodegenerative disorders. In recent years, several proteomics studies conducted on brain tissues from patients with neurodegenerative diseases have shown that changes in protein abundance or post-translational modification underly the disease pathogenesis. In this review, we summarize the major advances of human brain proteomics in the research on Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Huntington’s disease as the most common neurodegenerative diseases. Finally, we proposed some perspective clues for future work.