Differential Proteomics Analysis of Synaptic Proteins Identifies Potential Cellular Targets and Protein Mediators of Synaptic

Non-somatic synaptic and axonal compartments of neu-rons are primary pathological targets in many neurode-generative conditions, ranging from Alzheimer disease through to motor neuron disease. Axons and synapses are protected from degeneration by the slow Wallerian degeneration (Wlds) gene. Significantly the molecular mechanisms through which this spontaneous genetic mu-tation delays degeneration remain controversial, and the downstream protein targets of Wlds resident in non-so-matic compartments remain unknown. In this study we used differential proteomics analysis to identify proteins whose expression levels were significantly altered in iso-lated synaptic preparations from the striatum of Wlds mice. Eight of the 16 proteins we identified as having modified expression levels in Wlds synapses are know