白内障蛋白质组学研究的现状及未来研究方向

Current situation and future directions of proteomic studies in cataract

白内障——眼睛晶状体混浊,是人类致盲的最主要原因,约占所有病例的42%。晶状体内富含晶状体蛋白(占所有蛋白的90%),其结构和功能异常是白内障形成的重要原因。新近研究表明,大量晶状体蛋白发生了翻译后修饰、相互聚集以及自身降解,这些变化的累积导致白内障的形成。这些传统的蛋白质组学研究主要以高丰度的晶状体蛋白为研究对象,阐述了白内障可能的发病机制。然而,对于晶状体内的非晶状体蛋白,由于含量微少(但功能重要),目前的蛋白质组学研究受阻,进展缓慢。因此,有必要分析晶状体的特殊性以及非晶状体蛋白的作用,来推动白内障蛋白质组学研究。

Cataract,the opacification of the eye lens, is the leading cause of blind ness worldwide-it accounts for approximately 42% of all cases. The lens contains highly abundant structural proteins crystallins （up to 90% ）. Malflmction of the erystallins plays a great role in the formation of cataract. Recent studies showed that large amount of crystallins suffer post-translational modifications, aggregation, and degradation, which result in decrease of the lens transparency. These traditional proteomie studies predomi nantly focused on the abundant crystallin proteins, and elaborated the potential patho genesis of cataract. However, for non-crystallin proteins within the lens, because of the meager contents （but functionally important ）, the current proteomic research is blocked, and the progress is slow. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the characteristic of the lens as well as the role of non-crystallin proteins to promote proteomic studies in cataract.