Proteomics in human cancer research

Abstract

Proteomics is now widely employed in the study of cancer. Many laboratories are applying the rapidly emerging technologies to elucidate the underlying mechanisms associated with cancer development, progression, and severity in addition to developing drugs and identifying patients who will benefit most from molecular targeted compounds. Various proteomic approaches are now available for protein separation and identification, and for characterization of the function and structure of candidate proteins. In spite of significant challenges that still exist, proteomics has rapidly expanded to include the discovery of novel biomarkers for early detection, diagnosis and prognostication (clinical application), and for the identification of novel drug targets (pharmaceutical application). To achieve these goals, several innovative technologies including 2-D-difference gel electrophoresis, SELDI, multidimensional protein identification technology, isotope-coded affinity tag, solid-state and suspension protein array technologies, X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, and computational methods such as comparative and de novo structure prediction and molecular dynamics simulation have evolved, and are being used in different combinations. This review provides an overview of the field of proteomics and discusses the key proteomic technologies available to researchers. It also describes some of the important challenges and highlights the current pharmaceutical and clinical applications of proteomics in human cancer research.

Proteomic identification of calcium-binding chaperone calreticulin as a potential mediator for the neuroprotective and neuritogenic activities of fruit-derived glycoside amygdalin

“…Proteomics is widely used to qualitatively and quantitatively measure a broad-spectrum of proteins from cell culture and animal models [24]. By analyzing 2-D gel electrophoresis and MALDI-TOF-MS results, we previously learned that saponin astragaloside IV from the herbal medicine Radix astragali exerted its anticancer activity by suppressing the expression of oncogene vav3 [25].To further understand the actions of amygdalin on neuronal cells at molecular level, we also performed a proteomic analysis of the cellular responses to amygdalin in PC12 cells.…”

Botanical Drug Puerarin Attenuates 6-Hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-Induced Neurotoxicity via Upregulating Mitochondrial Enzyme Arginase-2

“…Proteomics is widely used to qualitatively and quantitatively measure a broad spectrum of proteins from cell culture and animal models [38]. By profiling the proteomic responses to puerarin treatment, we successfully identified 16 top puerarinregulated proteins.…”

Mass Spectrometric Characterization of Protein Structure Details Refines the Proteome Signature for Invasive Ductal Breast Carcinoma

“…Protein markers for breast carcinoma have been amply suggested [3][4][5][6], and several protein marker candidates have been named from proteome analyses [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Established biomarkers, such as estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor already play a significant role in the selection of patients for endocrine therapy.…”