Characterization of biometal profiles in neurological disorders

Abstract

Many neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders have been reported to coincide with the dysregulation of metal ions in the body and central nervous system. However, in most cases, it is not the imbalance of a single divalent metal ion but a plethora of metal ions reported to be altered. Given that different divalent metal ions are often able to bind to a protein in a competitive manner, although with different affinities, and that they might use similar transporters for uptake and regulation, it is likely that the imbalance of one metal ion will downstream affect the homeostasis of other metal ions. Thus, based on this assumption, we hypothesize that the dysregulation of a specific metal ion will lead to a characteristic biometal profile. Similar profiles might therefore be detected in various neurological disorders. Moreover, if such shared biometal profiles exist across different neurological disorders, it is possible that shared behavioural impairments in these disorders result from the imbalance in metal ion homeostasis. Thus, here, we evaluate the reported excess or deficiency of metal ions in various neurological disorders and aim to integrate reported alterations in metal ions to generate a characteristic biometal profile for the disorder. Based on this, we try to predict which alterations in biometals will be caused by the overload or deficiency of one particular metal ion. Moreover, investigating the behavioural phenotypes of rodent models suffering from alterations in biometals, we assess whether a shared behavioural phenotype exists for disorders with similar biometal profiles. Our results show that observed behavioural aspects of some neurological disorders are reflected in their specific biometal profile and mirrored by mouse models suffering from similar biometal deregulations. This journal is © the Partner Organisations 2014.