Protein microarrays and novel detection platforms

Abstract

The field of proteomics has undergone rapid advancements over the last decade and protein microarrays have emerged as a promising technological platform for the challenging task of studying complex proteomes. This gel-free approach has found an increasing number of applications due to its ability to rapidly and efficiently study thousands of proteins simultaneously. Different protein microarrays, including capture arrays, reverse-phase arrays, tissue microarrays, lectin microarrays and cell-free expression microarrays, have emerged, which have demonstrated numerous applications for proteomics studies including biomarker discovery, protein interaction studies, enzyme-substrate profiling, immunological profiling and vaccine development, among many others. The need to detect extremely low-abundance proteins in complex mixtures has provided motivation for the development of sensitive, real-time and multiplexed detection platforms. Conventional label-based approaches like fluorescence, chemiluminescence and use of radioactive isotopes have witnessed substantial advancements, with techniques like quantum dots, gold nanoparticles, dye-doped nanoparticles and several bead-based methods now being employed for protein microarray studies. In order to overcome the limitations posed by label-based technologies, several label-free approaches like surface plasmon resonance, carbon nanotubes and nanowires, and microcantilevers, among others, have also advanced in recent years, and these methods detect the query molecule itself. The scope of this article is to outline the protein microarray techniques that are currently being used for analytical and function-based proteomics and to provide a detailed analysis of the key technological advances and applications of various detection systems that are commonly used with microarrays.

Combined gene expression and protein interaction analysis of dynamic modularity in glioma prognosis

“…With the development of protein-detection techniques, in-vivo characterization of different protein phenotypes becomes a realistic objective. The direct detection of proteins in specific spatio-temporal states [32] will facilitate our ability to produce protein-interaction networks.…”

Implementation of Proteomics for Cancer Research: Past, Present, and Future

“…A protein microarray typically consists of a small piece of plastic or glass coated with thousands of capture reagents (molecules that can grab specific proteins) (Chandra et al, 2011). By using this technology, scientists could isolate and study many potential biomarker proteins (Chandra et al, 2011).…”

“…A protein microarray typically consists of a small piece of plastic or glass coated with thousands of capture reagents (molecules that can grab specific proteins) (Chandra et al, 2011). By using this technology, scientists could isolate and study many potential biomarker proteins (Chandra et al, 2011). Protein microarrays can be miniaturized to contain tens of thousands of capture features arranged in a grid, each specific for a certain type of a protein (Mishra and Verma, 2010).…”

Sensitivity and specificity: twin goals of proteomics assays. Can they be combined?

“…The most common way to multiplex immunoassays is to confine antibodies for different target substances to known locations in a rectilinear grid of micrometer-sized spots known as a microarray [16][17][18][19]. The first antibody microarrays appeared at about the same time as DNA microarrays.…”