mAbDx collaborated on and provided novel monoclonal antibodies used in an Imaging Mass Spectrometry study entitled "Parkinson’s disease neurons exhibit alterations in mitochondrial quality control proteins" that has been published in npj Parkinson’s Disease (2023)9:120.

Mitochondrial dysfunction has been suggested to contribute to Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis, though an understanding of the extent or exact mechanism of this contribution remains elusive. This has been complicated by challenging nature of pathway-based analysis and an inability simultaneously study multiple related proteins within human brain tissue. Imaging Mass Cytometry was used to overcome these challenges, by simultaneously measuring a large number of protein targets while retaining the spatial relationship between targets in post-mortem midbrain sections.

The findings suggest an inability to turnover mitochondria and maintain mitochondrial proteostasis in Parkinson’s neurons. This may exacerbate the impact of oxidative phosphorylation defects and aging related oxidative stress, leading to neuronal degeneration. The data also suggest that that Lewy pathology may affect mitochondrial quality control regulation through the disturbance of mitophagy and intramitochondrial proteostasis.