In a recent paper published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation the immune response associated with elevated intermittent ocular hypertension has been evaluated. An antigen microarray assay was performed with ten different antigens spotted on ONCYTE® nitrocellulose film slides and used to probe serum from an intermittent ocular hypertension animal model. High Intraocular pressure is a main risk factor in glaucoma which in turn is the leading cause of blindness worldwide. Inflammatory and autoimmune responses together with neurodegeneration are but a few of the indicators typically associated with the multifactorial pathology. This analysis revealed significantly altered levels of IgG autoantibody against glutathione S-transferase, spectrin and transferrin, in the treated animals. Axonal neurodegeneration appeared to correlate with increased autoimmune response, thus suggesting that changes in autoantibody reactivities could be useful as a biomarker for Glaucoma.The effects of Belimumab, a B lymphocyte inhibitor, were also evaluated in the same experiment. Protein microarrays provide an excellent tool for simultaneously assessing multiple parameters in a single sample.
Another example of how reverse phase protein microarray is helping to gain insight into pathological processes is described in:
Repeated mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI), such as those occurring in sports or military settings, may lead to serious long-lasting neurological consequences. Some of the traditional diagnostic methods, like conventional structural MRI or evaluation of neuropsychological symptoms are not always capable of detecting the complex biological changes that are triggered as a consequence of repeated traumatic brain injury. Increasing evidence shows that these changes could be associated with neurological impairment and neurodegenerative processes. In this study, plasma samples obtained from an animal model of mTBI were printed on ONCYTE® AVID nitrocellulose film slides and interrogated against markers of neurodegenerative processes. Several of those, including ceruloplasmin, neurofilament heavy chain (NF-H), tau protein and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), have been found to be altered in mTBI mice compared with controls. Blood-based proteomics proved to be more sensitive for the detection of persisting and/or long-term changes than behavioral assessment and could possibly be exploited to investigate the effect of drugs.
