Beijing Key Laboratory of Captive Wildlife Technologies, Beijing Zoo, Beijing, China.
Beijing Zoo, Beijing, China.
Sci Rep. 2023 Aug 5;13(1):12722. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-40003-0.
Approximately 20% of aged captive giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) have cataracts that impair their quality of life. To identify potential biomarkers of cataract formation, we carried out a quantitative proteomics analysis of 10 giant pandas to find proteins differing in abundance between healthy and cataract-bearing animals. We identified almost 150 proteins exceeding our threshold for differential abundance, most of which were associated with GO categories related to extracellular localization. The most significant differential abundance was associated with components of the proteasome and other proteins with a role in proteolysis or its regulation, most of which were depleted in pandas with cataracts. Other modulated proteins included components of the extracellular matrix or cytoskeleton, as well as associated signaling proteins and regulators, but we did not find any differentially expressed transcription factors. These results indicate that the formation of cataracts involves a complex post-transcriptional network of signaling inside and outside lens cells to drive stress responses as a means to address the accumulation of protein aggregates triggered by oxidative damage. The modulated proteins also indicate that it should be possible to predict the onset of cataracts in captive pandas by taking blood samples and testing them for the presence or absence of specific protein markers.
大约 20%的老年圈养大熊猫（Ailuropoda melanoleuca）患有白内障，这降低了它们的生活质量。为了确定白内障形成的潜在生物标志物，我们对 10 只大熊猫进行了定量蛋白质组学分析，以寻找健康和白内障大熊猫之间丰度差异的蛋白质。我们鉴定出近 150 种蛋白质的丰度差异超过了我们的阈值，其中大多数与与细胞外定位相关的 GO 类别相关。最显著的丰度差异与蛋白酶体的组成部分以及其他在蛋白水解或其调控中起作用的蛋白质有关，而这些蛋白质在患有白内障的大熊猫中被耗尽。其他被调控的蛋白质包括细胞外基质或细胞骨架的组成部分，以及相关的信号蛋白和调节剂，但我们没有发现任何差异表达的转录因子。这些结果表明，白内障的形成涉及到晶状体细胞内外的一个复杂的转录后信号网络，以应对氧化损伤引发的蛋白聚集体的积累，从而引发应激反应。被调控的蛋白质也表明，通过采集血液样本并检测特定蛋白质标志物的存在与否，应该有可能预测圈养大熊猫白内障的发作。
