A PROTEOMICS APPROACH TOWARD THE UNDERSTANDING OF SCHIZOPHRENIA AND BIPOLAR DISORDER

Swatton¹, P. Sudhakaran¹, N.A. Karp², S. Hester²,

1Department of

Neurobiology, Babraham Institute, Cambridge CB2 4AT, UK; ²Department

of Biochemistry, Cambridge Centre for Proteomics, University of Cambridge,

Cambridge, CB2 1QW, UK; ³Department of Psychiatry, University of

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder each affect ~1% of the population worldwide,

but despite such high incidences, the aetiology of both disorders remains

elusive.  We have employed the latest advance in 2-D PAGE technology to

investigate protein expression changes for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

compared with matched controls.  Fresh-frozen pre-frontal cortex from white and

grey matter of 10 control and schizophrenia or bipolar disorder individuals was

subjected to a 2D-florescence differential gel electrophoresis (2-D DIGE) and

protein expression was quantified using Biological Variation Analysis software

(Amersham).  Proteins of interest were excised from a Coomassie-stained gel, and

identified by Nanospray/LC-MS/MS.  We identified abnormalities in the expression

of proteins involved in protein trafficking, the cytoskeleton, myelination and

energy metabolism in schizophrenia individuals.  Preliminary results from an

analogous study on bipolar disorder have already highlighted some interesting

differences in protein expression for bipolar disorder compared with