Respiratory Proteomics Today: Are Technological Advances for the Identification of Biomarker Signatures Catching up with Their Promise? A Critical Review of the Literature in the Decade 2004–2013

Abstract

To improve the knowledge on a variety of severe disorders, research has moved from the analysis of individual proteins to the investigation of all proteins expressed by a tissue/organism. This global proteomic approach could prove very useful: (i) for investigating the biochemical pathways involved in disease; (ii) for generating hypotheses; or (iii) as a tool for the identification of proteins differentially expressed in response to the disease state. Proteomics has not been used yet in the field of respiratory research as extensively as in other fields, only a few reproducible and clinically applicable molecular markers, which can assist in diagnosis, having been currently identified. The continuous advances in both instrumentation and methodology, which enable sensitive and quantitative proteomic analyses in much smaller amounts of biological material than before, will hopefully promote the identification of new candidate biomarkers in this area. The aim of this report is to critically review the application over the decade 2004–2013 of very sophisticated technologies to the study of respiratory disorders. The observed changes in protein expression profiles from tissues/fluids of patients affected by pulmonary disorders opens the route for the identification of novel pathological mediators of these disorders.

The Role of One- and Two-Dimensional Electrophoretic Techniques in Proteomics of the Lung

“…As the goal of the authors is to offer a broad picture of the subject, readers interested in learning more about specific techniques or their application to pulmonary diseases are encouraged to refer to excellent review articles in this field which show the merits of proteomic techniques in producing qualitative and quantitative information on the protein patterns of a variety of human fluids/tissues [62][63][64][65]. Taken together, these articles represent a good resource which describes in depth the status of electrokinetic (and chromatographic) proteomic methods and provide a comprehensive picture of proteomics of pulmonary disorders to date.…”