Sex-Specific Markers of Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration in the Spinal Cord Proteome of the SOD1^G93A Mouse Model of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that has no cure. The underlying mechanistic details of sex differences in the ALS spinal cord, the site of disease onset, are not understood to an extent that could guide novel drug development. To address this, the spinal cords of 120-day-old wild-type (WT) and SOD1^G93A (familial mouse model of ALS with mutant superoxide dismutase 1) mice were subjected to untargeted, quantitative proteomics using tandem mass tag acquisition on high-resolution mass spectrometric instrumentation. Compared to WT, both male and female SOD1^G93A spinal cords exhibited an upregulation of neuroinflammatory cascades of both peripheral and central origins, as well as a downregulation of proteins reflective of death and dysfunction of cells within the spinal cord. However, female and male SOD1^G93A mouse spinal cords exhibited sex-specific differences in proteins compared to respective WT that related to immune response, as well as cellular structure, function, and homeostasis. The proteomic datasets presented provide entire cohort and sex-specific spinal cord drug targets and disease biomarkers in the SOD1^G93A mouse model of ALS that may guide future drug development and sex selection in preclinical study designs utilizing the SOD1^G93A model.