Journal of Proteomics & Bioinformatics
Open Access
ISSN: 0974-276X
ISSN: 0974-276X
T S Keshava Prasad
Institute of Bioinformatics, India
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Proteomics Bioinform
HIV infection leads to substantial morbidity and mortality worldwide. Common opportunistic infections, which affect the central nervous system (CNS) with high associated mortality conditions, include CNS tuberculosis, cryptococcal meningitis and cerebral toxoplasmosis. Treatment of CNS opportunistic infections along with Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) improves survival. However, molecular level investigation of these infections continues to be relevant, especially in developing and resource strained countries where access to ART is limited. Also, among those patients for whom ART is initiated, immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS) might unmask previously unsuspected CNS opportunistic infections. Therefore, we carried out extensive genomic and proteomic analysis of brain tissues from HIV-associated opportunistic infections of the CNS including cryptococcal meningitis, tuberculous meningitis and toxoplasma encephalitis. Brain tissues from patients of these diseases and corresponding age-sex matched controls were obtained from archives of the Human Brain Bank at NIMHANS. We employed iTRAQ-based quantitative proteomics strategy using high-resolution Fourier transform mass spectrometry to identify the proteins whose expression is altered in the brain tissues in response to these diseases when compared to that of control brain. Differentially expressed proteins were classified based on biological processes and molecular functions using Gene Ontology (GO). Functional and pathway analysis using Gene Spring revealed several differentially regulated proteins involved in blood brain barrier breach, immune response, calcium signalling, neurotransmitter release, neuronal degeneration, energy metabolism and regulation of actin cytoskeleton pathway. Important findings from this study are presented in this poster.
Email: keshav@ibioinformatics.org