Quantitative proteomic analyses of CD4
+ and CD8
+ T cells reveal differentially expressed proteins in multiple sclerosis patients and healthy controls.
Clin Proteomics 2019;
16:19. [PMID:
31080378 PMCID:
PMC6505067 DOI:
10.1186/s12014-019-9241-5]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2018] [Accepted: 04/27/2019] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Background
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune, neuroinflammatory disease, with an unclear etiology. However, T cells play a central role in the pathogenesis by crossing the blood–brain-barrier, leading to inflammation of the central nervous system and demyelination of the protective sheath surrounding the nerve fibers. MS has a complex inheritance pattern, and several studies indicate that gene interactions with environmental factors contribute to disease onset.
Methods
In the current study, we evaluated T cell dysregulation at the protein level using electrospray liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry to get novel insights into immune-cell processes in MS. We have analyzed the proteomic profiles of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells purified from whole blood from 13 newly diagnosed, treatment-naive female patients with relapsing–remitting MS and 14 age- and sex-matched healthy controls.
Results
An overall higher protein abundance was observed in both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from MS patients when compared to healthy controls. The differentially expressed proteins were enriched for T-cell specific activation pathways, especially CTLA4 and CD28 signaling in CD4+ T cells. When selectively analyzing proteins expressed from the genes most proximal to > 200 non-HLA MS susceptibility polymorphisms, we observed differential expression of eight proteins in T cells between MS patients and healthy controls, and there was a correlation between the genotype at three MS genetic risk loci and protein expressed from proximal genes.
Conclusion
Our study provides evidence for proteomic differences in T cells from relapsing–remitting MS patients compared to healthy controls and also identifies dysregulation of proteins encoded from MS susceptibility genes.
Electronic supplementary material
The online version of this article (10.1186/s12014-019-9241-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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