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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Neurodegeneration
Volume 18 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1502246

The Cellular and Extra-Cellular Proteomic Signature of Human Dopaminergic Neurons Carrying the LRRK2 G2019S Mutation

Provisionally accepted

    The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

      Background: Extracellular vesicles are easily accessible in various biofluids and allow the assessment of disease-related changes of the proteome. This has made them a promising target for biomarker studies, especially in the field of neurodegeneration where access to diseased tissue is very limited. Genetic variants in the LRRK2 gene have been linked to both familial and sporadic forms of Parkinson’s disease. With LRRK2 inhibitors entering clinical trials, there is an unmet need for biomarkers that reflect LRRK2-specific pathology and target engagement. Methods: In this study, we used induced pluripotent stem cells derived from a patient with Parkinson’s disease carrying the LRRK2 G2019S mutation and an isogenic gene corrected control to generate human dopaminergic neurons. We isolated extracellular vesicles and neuronal cell lysates and characterized their proteomic signature using data-independent acquisition proteomics. Next, we performed differential expression analysis to identify dysregulated proteins in the mutated line. We used Metascape and gene ontology enrichment analysis on the dysregulated proteomes to identify changes in associated functional networks. Results: We identified 595 significantly differentially regulated proteins in extracellular vesicles and 3205 in cell lysates. We visualized functionally relevant protein-protein-interaction networks and identified key regulators within the dysregulated proteomes. Using gene ontology we found close association to biological processes relevant in neurodegeneration and Parkinson’s disease. Finally, we focused on proteins that were dysregulated in both the extracellular and cellular proteomes. We provide a list of ten biomarker candidates that are functionally relevant in neurodegeneration and linked to LRRK2 associated pathology, e.g. the sonic hedgehog signaling molecule, a protein that has tightly been linked to LRRK2-related disruption of cilia function. Conclusion: In conclusion, we characterized the cellular and extracellular proteome of dopaminergic neurons carrying the LRRK2 G2019S mutation and propose an experimentally based list of biomarker candidates for future studies.

      Keywords: Extracellular vesicle (EV), biomarker, iPSC (induced pluripotent stem cell), LRRK2, Parkinson ' s disease

      Received: 26 Sep 2024; Accepted: 21 Nov 2024.

      Copyright: © 2024 . This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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