Ryan Egbert and Dr. John Kauwe, Biology Department
Our project has gone according to plan, with a few small modifications along the way. Initially, we had proposed to incorporate gender profiling in attempt to understand the differences in serum proteomics profiles in men and women. Due to the difficulties in carrying out this aspect of the project, we simplified our project to analyze serum differences between Alzheimer’s and non-Alzheimer’s individuals only. Utilizing the novel capillary liquid chromatography method outlined in my proposal we were able to analyze our serum samples. By comparing the resulting mass spectra using specialized statistical methods we have been able to identify several biomarkers. The information we have found will provide us with important information about the presence of proteomics profiles. We think the results are turning up the information that we’d hoped and hypothesized we’d find.
When we were beginning to perform statistical tests to evaluate the importance of our possible biomarker peaks, we ran into some unexpected challenges. In order to determine the significance of a biomarker peak we need to compare the difference of the intensities of the case versus control with another peak known as a reference peak. Reference peaks are valuable in that we expect the level of peptides for all cases and controls to be very similar for this region. If the reference peak and potential biomarker peak both have similar differences in intensity for cases and controls then we cannot conclude that varying levels of peptides at the biomarker region are due to the disease but are for some other reason. Using the reference peaks we were able to eliminate other variables that could cause potential differences.
Challenges arouse because we had selected reference peaks which did not accurately portray the similar intensities for both case and control. This was a reason for many of our initial statistical tests to come out negative and caused us to back track and find new reference markers to use in comparison. This was a painful learning experience, delaying our progress on the project. This process was repeated for various sets as we would discover that the reference peak itself was not the best depiction for comparing peptide levels. Due to the importance of the reference marker, our only option was to continue to identify possible reference markers and test them all to see how well they could be used as data in our experiment. This added to the length of our project.
We were presented with the opportunity to share our project and findings with other students and professors at BYU. We felt this would be helpful in promoting our project and would increase our own knowledge of our topic. We designed a poster and presented this poster in the Life Sciences poster session. It took us away from our project for a few weeks, but we gained important experience on how we will present our findings in the near future when we finish our project.
Alzheimer’s disease in general is in need of much research and development to help deter the effects of this debilitating disorder. Our research is specifically involved with the identification of proteins and peptides within the serum that can be linked to Alzheimer’s disease. However, there is still much to be revealed regarding the function of those proteins and how they are influencing this disorder. The most valuable research that will be done will link proteins to being a cause of dementia and other health concerns associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Through discoveries such as these we will open the doors for scientists to develop effective treatments for the millions currently suffering the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s disease.
My group has gone through all of the data and has found over a dozen statistically significant biomarkers. We have sent a request to the University of Washington for more samples so we can verify our results. We are running further tests on to identify and prove their link to Alzheimer’s disease. Though this research project is not yet finished, our results look promising and we have begun to take the necessary steps to present this research at conferences this summer.
Though our novel liquid chromatography mass spectrometry method my group us able to look at all the levels of proteins and peptides in the human serum. We will soon complete our testing of the over a dozen statistically significant biomarkers allowing us to judge whether or not these biomarkers are truly linked to Alzheimer’s disease. If our results are significant we expect to publish this research right away. These findings will pave the way for future research and eventual prevention and a cure for Alzheimer’s disease.