Application of quantitative proteomics technologies to the biomarker discovery pipeline for multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MScl) is an inflammatory-mediated demyelinating disorder most prevalent in young Caucasian adults. The various clinical manifestations of the disease present several challenges in the clinic in terms of diagnosis, monitoring disease progression and response to treatment. Advances in mass spectrometry-based proteomic technologies have revolutionized the field of biomarker research and paved the way for the identification and validation of disease-specific markers. This review focuses on the novel candidates discovered by the application of quantitative proteomics to relevant disease-affected tissues in both the human context and within the animal model of the disease known as experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). The role of targeted mass spectrometry approaches for biomarker validation studies, such as multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) will also be discussed.