The proximity ligation assay: an high throughput technique for protein analysis in neuroscience

In recent years, the ability to investigate proteins in cell cultures and tissue samples has expanded in order to offer profound insights into the dynamic interplay of molecules that occur within the cellular environment and their alterations in various disorders including neurodegenerative diseases. The proximity ligation assay (PLA) is a sensitive and specific technique that use sets of proximity probes to induce the formation of circular DNA strands when the probes are bound in close proximity. The DNA circles serve as templates for amplification reactions allowing the localized detection of individual, endogenous, interacting proteins in cells and tissue. Here, we describe the use of different variants of the PLA approach to analyze protein expression, post-translational modification and interaction in both liquid and tissue or cell culture samples.