Mass spectrometry-based clinical proteomics

Abstract

In recent years, mass spectrometry (MS) has been recognized as a 'Gold Standard' tool for the identification and analysis of individual proteins in expression proteomics studies. Moreover, MS has proven useful for the analysis of nucleic acids for single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping purposes. With the increased usage of MS as a standard tool for life science applications and the advancement of MS instrumentation, sample preparation and bioinformatics, MS technology has entered novel screening and discovery application areas that are beyond the traditional protein identification and characterization applications. The areas of clinical diagnostics and predictive medicine are just two prime examples of these fields. Predictive markers or biomarkers for early diagnosis of diseases are of growing importance for the human healthcare community. The goal of using MS in clinical proteomics is to generate protein profiles (mass to charge [m/z] ratio versus signal intensity) from readily available body fluids like serum, saliva and urine to detect changes in protein levels that reflect changes in the disease states. Whereas the results originating from individual protein markers may be intriguing, data resulting from the analysis of complex, multiple biomarker patterns may be unequivocal. These biomarker patterns are hidden in complex mass spectra and are not always obvious to the human eye. Sophisticated bioinformatics algorithms have to be applied to determine these unique biomarker patterns. Here, we review the latest developments concerning the use of MS for the discovery of biomarker patterns and for the identification of individual biomarkers in the field of clinical proteomics applications.

Dynamic Change of Serum Proteomics of Occupational Medicamentosalike Dermatitis Induced by Trichloroethylene

“…Mass spectrometry-based search for biomarker patterns was widely recognized as a valuable research tool for predictive medicine and pharmacological monitoring [17][18][19][20]. ClinProTools was the data interpretation software of the mass spectrometry-based ClinProtTM solutions for biomarker analysis [21].…”

Discovery of putative salivary biomarkers for Sjögren’s syndrome using high resolution mass spectrometry and bioinformatics

“…Technologies with high throughput capabilities in genomics and proteomics led to an ability to conduct discovery-based research (32)(33). Such technologies include quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analyses, gene expression arrays, and high-resolution mass spectrometry.…”

“…Such technologies include quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analyses, gene expression arrays, and high-resolution mass spectrometry. Discovery-based research relies on the ability to analyze large quantities of data without a hypothesis, by searching for patterns (genes or proteins) that usefully discriminate between different groups of individuals (32)(33).…”

Biomarkers Screening Between Preoperative and Postoperative Patients in Pancreatic Cancer

“…The SEL-DI-TOF MS analysis of various body fluids made a contribution to the early diagnosis of variety of different cancer types such as ovarian, lung, prostate, bladder, breast, brain, and liver Carrette et al, 2003;Pusch et al, 2003;Wang et al, 2009). And this method shows a satisfactory result in identifying pancreatic cancer patients via serum protein profiling in many researches (Gao et al, 2012;Qian et al, 2012;Xue et al, 2012).…”