Exploring protein expression patterns in mice with Down syndrome through Discriminant Analysis

Abstract

Down Syndrome (DS) is the most common genetic cause of learning and memory deficits, and there is growing interest in treatments for these cognitive disabilities. This study aims to investigate the applicability of Canonical Discriminant Analysis (CDA) in identifying the most important proteins in differentiating between groups of Ts65Dn mice, genetic model of DS, and control groups, considering factors such as genotype, external stimulus, and memantine treatment. CDA is a technique in multivariate statistics that creates discriminant functions based on predictor variables to provide the best discrimination between the groups. In this study, CDA was used to identify patterns of protein expression that best discriminate between mouse groups. CDA was effective in class discrimination, identifying significant differences between mice stimulated and those not stimulated to learn. However, it was not possible to identify specific proteins associated with memantine treatment. The proteins ITSN1, pERK, and GSK3B stood out in distinguishing between DS and wild mice, indicating their potential as markers for future studies involving the cognitive implications of DS.