Analysis of tear proteins of patients with Alzheimer’s disease
Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most common age-related dementia affecting millions people worldwide. Multiple studies highlighted the role of amyloid-β peptides and the hyperphosphorilated tau protein in the pathophysiology of the disease. The presence of amyloid plaques was demonstrated in retina and lens of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and according to animal models there is a correlation between the amyloid depositions in the retina and brain. Tear is an easy to collect body fluid containing near 1500 proteins. We are analyzing the tears of patients with Alzheimer’s disease with classical proteomics and targeted mass spectrometry methods in order to identify possible new biomarkers. According to our results the combination of lipocalin-1, dermcidin, lacritin and lysozyme C can be used as biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease. In order to be able to utilize these potential biomarkers more analyses should be performed on larger patient cohorts.
Proteomics analysis of the human sweat
The human skin creates an effective chemical barrier by secreting antimicrobial and immunmodulatory proteins as part of the innate immune system. Some of the antimicrobial peptides were shown to be expressed constitutively while others were found to be inducible upon pathogenic stimuli. Our workgroup has identified the most abundant proteins in the human sweat using state of the art mass spectrometry quantification techniques and have developed SRM-based methods for the analysis of the components of the chemical barrier. Our findings with regard to the proteins forming the chemical barrier of the skin can be further used as a starting point for non-invasive sweat biomarker research.
Identification of salivary biomarkers characteristic for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC)
Hungarian population occupies the top places of statistics regarding oral squamous cell carcinoma incidence, thus the identification of new biomarkers is essential in order to increase the survival rate of the patients. Our workgroup examined saliva samples of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma by targeted mass spectrometry method and Luminex-based multiplex assay in order to identify possible new biomarkers for the Hungarian population. According to our data, the level of IL-6, S100A9 and thioredoxin changed significantly in the saliva of patients with OSCC.
Multimodal examination of neurodegenerative eye diseases
Glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy are neurodegenerative conditions which can be considered as leading causes of blindness worldwide. Our research group analyses tear samples of patients with different stages of diabetic retinopathy and of patients with glaucoma underwent trabeculectomy. The results of the clinical examination, corneal confocal microscopy and retinal photography examinations are combined with proteomic data to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the pathopysiological condition present and also to find suitable markers which can help the diagnosis. Databanks of patient data, results of clinical examinations and proteomics analyses are generated permitting the further examination of data coming from different modalities.
Oncoproteomics from systems biology point of view
The analysis of protein profile changes in biological samples originating from patiens having different forms of brain cancers, breast cancer, oral cancer or malignant melanoma and the combination of proteomic data with lipidomic, transcriptomic and microbiota data is the major goal of this project. A system biology approach along with network analysis will be used to evaluate data coming from different omics approaches in order to get a clearer picture of the pathological change and response to therapy.
Tear and serum analysis to decifer patomechanisms laying behind obesity and type 2 diabetes
Obesity and the type 2 diabetes (T2D) are major health impairing conditions affecting millions of people worldwide. The disease itself or the disease-related complications put a heavy burden on the society. In this project our aim is to digitalize the tear and serum proteomes and to carry out an unbiased data-driven proteomics study to identify pathways and proteins characteristic to the obesity – early T2D – advanced diabetes with diabetic complications axis and to follow the appearance of complications at the level of serum and/or tear proteomes. Our aim is to examine the digitalized tear and serum proteomes along with metabolites, lipid mediators and proteins having role in immune response, and to correlate the obtained data with the clinical and ophthalmological parameters. We would like to identify tear and/or serum proteins which can be potential biomarkers to help the prediction of obesity-diabetes transition, the diagnosis of diabetes-related complications, such as diabetic retinopathy or can be used as potential therapeutic targets. The results of the unbiased approach will be verified in cell culture experiments. At the same time, we would like to deposit to publicly available databases the digitalized tear and serum proteomes allowing further examinations by the scientific community and possibly speeding up the translation of research data into clinically usable diagnostic or therapeutic modalities.