Proteomics: Clinical Applications

Extract

The word proteomics was coined in 1997 to describe the changes in all proteins expressed by a genome. Several sophisticated techniques including two-dimensional electrophoresis, imaging, mass spectrometry, and bioinformatics are used in proteomics to identify, quantify, and characterize proteins. Clinical proteomics is the application of proteomics techniques to the medical field. The main aim of this methodology is to identify proteins involved in pathological processes and to understand how illness can lead to altered protein expression. Clinical proteomics offers the opportunity and the potential to develop new diagnostic and prognostic tests, to identify new therapeutic targets, and eventually to allow the design of individualized patient treatment. Here we present an overview of proteomics applications to the study of disease and its potential to improve diagnosis and prognosis.

Clinical proteomics aims to identify proteins involved in pathological processes and to evaluate changes in protein expression during illness. Moreover, clinical proteomics offers technical capabilities to develop biomarkers for diagnosis and therapeutic interventions. Proteomics analysis utilizes multiple methodologies to characterize and identify altered proteins as a result of disease. One of the most common techniques is two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE), which is used to compare the protein expression among healthy individuals and diseased subjects. In addition, a combination of immunochemical analyses of proteins, bioinformatics (the use of computational techniques to extract meaning from biological data), and different mass spectrometry techniques are used for protein detection and identification.

The diagnosis of various disease states such as cancers and cardiomyopathies is currently based on the detection…

ABREVIATIONS: 2-DE = two-dimensional electrophoresis; DCM = dilated cardiomyopathy; ELISA = enzyme-linked immuno-absorbent assay; HCC = hepatocellular carcinoma; IL-6 = interleukin-6; LC/MS/MS = liquid chromatography mass spectrometry; MS = mass spectrometry; PSA = prostate-specific antigen; SELDI-MS = surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight.