Microarray analysis of peripheral blood lymphocytes from ALS patients and the SAFE detection of the KEGG ALS pathway.

The article focuses on a microarray analysis done on purified peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) from patients having amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive neurodegenerative disease, and healthy controls to identify molecular signatures in lymphocytes of ALS patients. The study involved the analyses of messenger RNA (mRNA) expression data using Linear Models for MicroArray (LIMMA) and Significance Analysis of Microarrays (SAM), the use of Significance Analysis of Function and Expression (SAFE) procedure to identify molecular pathway perturbations, and the use of proteasome inhibition assays to study cultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from ALS patients. The study showed the perturbation of the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) ALS pathway.