Phenotyping of tianma-treated differentiated rat neuronal B104 cells by iTRAQ.

Abstract

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s (AD), Parkinson’s (PD) and Huntington’s (HD) are increasingly prevalent due to the growing aging population. The basis of these diseases is the misfolding of proteins and their aggregation, which results in extensive cell death as metabolic pathways become dysfunctional. Moreover, the availability of treatment options for these diseases and their therapeutic value are limited. To this accord, researchers are studying the usage of herbs as alternative medicine and promising results have been obtained. Gastrodia elata Blume (tianma) is one such herb, where research has been conducted to determine its use as a potential therapeutic agent for the prevention and treatment of AD and PD. In this study, iTRAQ (isobaric Tag for Relative and Absolute Quantitation)-based quantitative proteomics was performed on tianma-treated rat neuroblastoma cells. From this, a total of 38 proteins were identified and classified according to their functions and roles in neurodegenerative diseases. Tianma has proved its use as a potential therapeutic agent for neurodegenerative diseases as it up-regulates triosephosphate isomerase (Tpi1), peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase A (Ppia), neural cell adhesion molecule 1 (Ncam1) and heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90aa1); all of which have been found to have their activity altered upon contracting neurodegenerative diseases.