Why steroidomics in brain?

In the 1980’s it was realised that steroids could be biosynthesised in brain, and that neurosteroids exert effects on the nervous system by modulating neurotransmission. It is now recognised that neurosteroids play a physiological role in cognitive aging, and havebeen proposed as biomarkers of this process. However, the specific functions of neurosteroids have yet to be fully established. Cholesterol, the precursor of neurosteroids, is also metabolised in brain to neurosterols, which are themselves implicated in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia, and are suggested as biomarkers of disease. There is now a requirement for research efforts to focus on the development and implementation of sensitive and specific methods for the qualitative and quantitative lipidomic profiling of neurosterols and neurosteroids in brain, and to investigate how these profiles change according to location, and with age, stress, and neurological disease. Concurrent to lipidomic investigations, proteomic studies are required to identify, locate and quantify the enzymes responsible for steroidogenesis and steroid metabolism in brain