Identifying biomarkers for monitoring disease progression of multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common debilitating, progressive neurological disorder which afflicts over 400,000 Americans. Currently, determining clinical and sub-clinical progression for MS patients is a significant obstacle due to the lack of specific and sensitive laboratory tests. Recently, our lab has developed a technique called Microwave & Magnetic (M 2) proteomics, which is a rapid quantitative approach ideal for identifying putative protein biomarkers and therapeutic targets of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a commonly used animal model for MS research. Notably we identified a number of putative-biomarkers which correlated with different stages of a monophasic EAE disease course. The objective of our research is to identify protein biomarkers correlated to disease progression using the progressive EAE disease model in non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice. We hypothesize that during the disease several key central nervous system (CNS) disease specific proteins will be released into blood and changes of these proteins can be used to determine disease progression. Using EAE NOD mice, we verified putative biomarkers in EAE NOD mice, followed by ELISA to detect these proteins in serum samples harvested at different time points throughout the disease course. We identified several potential biomarkers from CNS samples that correlate with different stages of EAE. These candidates were further investigated by ELISA in serum samples. Our study identified potential prognostic biomarkers for disease progression using the EAE NOD mouse model. This research will provide a proof-of-principle for the development of novel prognostic tests in MS patients.