Modern proteomic strategies in the study of complex neuropsychiatric disorders

An insight into protein mechanisms involved in disease is critical to the discovery and design of new therapeutic tools. Direct protein analysis provides a method for studying the proteome of a tissue irrespective of an in-depth knowledge of its transcriptome. The development of a human central nervous system (CNS) proteome database ultimately will serve to accelerate the development of specific diagnostic and prognostic markers, neuropsychiatric disease markers, and the corresponding therapeutic tools. It may also reduce the uncertainties in in silico gene predictions by direct open reading frame verification and the ambiguities that experimental models of disease may provide. Advances in gel independent proteomic analyses by solid phase isotope tagging provide greater scope for the characterization of previously elusive membrane proteins; approximately half of all drug targets are key CNS membrane proteins. These advances hold great promise for improvements in the understanding, diagnosis, and therapy of central nervous system disorders. (C) 2003 Society of Biological Psychiatry.