35 research outputs found
Proteomic analysis of early diabetic retinopathy reveals mediators of neurodegenerative brain diseases
© 2018 The Authors. PURPOSE. Current evidence suggests that retinal neurodegeneration is an early event in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy. Our main goal was to examine whether, in the diabetic human retina, common proteins and pathways are shared with brain neurodegenerative diseases. METHODS. A proteomic analysis was performed on three groups of postmortem retinas matched by age: nondiabetic control retinas (n = 5), diabetic retinas without glial activation (n = 5), and diabetic retinas with glial activation (n = 5). Retinal lysates from each group were pooled and run on an SDS-PAGE gel. Bands were analyzed sequentially by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS) using an Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer. RESULTS. A total of 2190 proteins were identified across all groups. To evaluate the association of the identified proteins with neurological signaling, significant signaling pathways belonging to the category ââNeurotransmitters and Other Nervous System Signalingâ were selected for analysis. Pathway analysis revealed that ââNeuroprotective Role of THOP1 in Alzheimerâs Diseaseâ and ââUnfolded Protein Responseâ pathways were uniquely enriched in control retinas. By contrast, ââDopamine Degradationâ and ââParkinsonâs Signalingâ were enriched only in diabetic retinas with glial activation. The ââNeuregulin Signaling,â âSynaptic Long Term Potentiation,â and âAmyloid Processingâ pathways were enriched in diabetic retinas with no glial activation. CONCLUSIONS. Diabetes-induced retinal neurodegeneration and brain neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimerâs and Parkinsonâs diseases, share common pathogenic pathways. These findings suggest that the study of neurodegeneration in the diabetic retina could be useful to further understand the neurodegenerative processes that occur in the brain of persons with diabetes
Analysis and characterization of heparin impurities
This review discusses recent developments in analytical methods available for the sensitive separation, detection and structural characterization of heparin contaminants. The adulteration of raw heparin with oversulfated chondroitin sulfate (OSCS) in 2007â2008 spawned a global crisis resulting in extensive revisions to the pharmacopeia monographs on heparin and prompting the FDA to recommend the development of additional physicochemical methods for the analysis of heparin purity. The analytical chemistry community quickly responded to this challenge, developing a wide variety of innovative approaches, several of which are reported in this special issue. This review provides an overview of methods of heparin isolation and digestion, discusses known heparin contaminants, including OSCS, and summarizes recent publications on heparin impurity analysis using sensors, near-IR, Raman, and NMR spectroscopy, as well as electrophoretic and chromatographic separations