ALS researcher Anna Månberg
ALS researcher Anna Månberg and her team at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm are one of the five researchers who were awarded funds from the Borje Salming ALS Foundation.
- During the first phase of the project, we have generated large-scale data for protein levels in samples collected by Caroline Ingre and her team at Karolinska Hospital. For the work, we have recruited Inci Aksoylu, who recently completed her PhD and has extensive experience in data analysis, says Anna Månberg, docent in neuroproteomics.
The project Protein markers for prediction of disease progression and survival in ALS will analyze blood plasma from roughly 250 Swedish ALS patients to measure levels of proteins that can be linked to the disease ALS.
Identification of proteins that can be used as biomarkers for ALS will facilitate both diagnosis and during the course of the disease itself. In addition, the effects of new drugs will be able to be evaluated.
- Today, many diagnoses are made through clinical assessment based on symptoms, i.e. the doctor examines functions and changes. By using biomarkers, diagnoses will be able to be established earlier and also provide information about the course of the disease.
The blood plasma that is examined comes from Karolinska Institutet's biobank and has been collected for nearly ten years.
Anna Månberg and her team use data-driven analysis, such as machine learning, to find protein patterns that can be linked to diagnosis and subgroups of patients.
For more than 20 years, there has been the Swedish initiative Human Protein Atlas, which maps human proteins, both in health and disease. The Human Protein Atlas is used by doctors and researchers worldwide.
Part of the Human Protein Atlas shows protein levels in blood from nearly 60 diseases. Right now, additional diseases that include ALS are being analysed, with blood samples from Caroline Ingres' study. Over 5,000 proteins are measured and will be presented on the Human Protein Atlas website based on age, gender and BMI, body mass index, that is, not on an individual level.
- It is an exciting area and there are very few projects in the research world that, as far as we know, work with a data-driven approach to such a large number of proteins in blood plasma in ALS. Anna Månberg and Caroline Ingre will, with their respective teams, analyze the data from the ALS patients in more detail, for example based on disease progression.
- There is still a lot of knowledge missing about what happens at the protein level in ALS. If we have the objective measurement values, we can hopefully both slow down and treat at an earlier stage compared to today. Our hope is that we will be able to see patterns and be able to find deviations that can be used in clinical operations.
Proteins and DNA
Our DNA, i.e. genome, takes care of protein formation. When proteins are made, a working copy of DNA called mRNA is created.
In the ribosome, i.e. the protein factory, the information in the mRNA molecule is then translated into the correct sequence of amino acids, which in turn form a protein.
All proteins consist of amino acids joined together to form a chain that folds into a certain structure.
We have around 20,000 proteins.
Biomarkers for ALS
An example of a biomarker is elevated levels of the protein GFAP-astrocytopathy, which for example marks for various forms of brain cancer. But it could also be that the protein marks for ALS. It is an example of a protein that will be investigated in the study.
In the part of the Human Protein Atlas that maps proteins in blood, 6,000 samples from patients with 59 different diseases have been analyzed so far. An additional 10,000 samples are now being analyzed, including samples from patients with ALS.