Mammalian plasma membrane proteins as potential biomarkers and drug targets

Abstract

Defining the plasma membrane proteome is crucial to understand the role of plasma membrane in fundamental biological processes. Change in membrane proteins is one of the first events that take place under pathological conditions, making plasma membrane proteins a likely source of potential disease biomarkers with prognostic or diagnostic potential. Membrane proteins are also potential targets for monoclonal antibodies and other drugs that block receptors or inhibit enzymes essential to the disease progress. Despite several advanced methods recently developed for the analysis of hydrophobic proteins and proteins with posttranslational modifications, integral membrane proteins are still under-represented in plasma membrane proteome. Recent advances in proteomic investigation of plasma membrane proteins, defining their roles as diagnostic and prognostic disease biomarkers and as target molecules in disease treatment, are presented.

Quantitative proteomic analysis of paired colorectal cancer and non-tumorigenic tissues reveals signature proteins and perturbed pathways involved in CRC progression and metastasis

“…We focused on membrane-enriched proteome for this study, since membrane proteins are involved in a variety of biological functions and are suitable therapeutic targets for cancers. Moreover, most membrane proteins are shed into the circulation making them attractive options for biomarker study [36]. However, due to their hydrophobic and basic nature, isolation of membrane proteins is often difficult, lengthy and yields are generally poor [37].…”

Discovery of Colorectal Cancer Biomarker Candidates by Membrane Proteomic Analysis and Subsequent Verification using Selected Reaction Monitoring (SRM) and Tissue Microarray (TMA) Analysis

“…We focused on membrane proteins in this study because membrane proteins are not only involved in the regulation of cell signaling and cell-cell interactions, but are also suitable therapeutic targets for cancers (39). One of the greatest advances in the treatment of cancer in recent years has been the discovery of molecular-targeted drugs, which has resulted in the development of many antibody drugs.…”

Monoclonal Antibody against α-Actinin 4 from Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells Inhibits Endothelium-Dependent Vasorelaxation

“…Approximately 30% of the cellular proteome are membrane proteins or membrane-associated proteins [3,4], and these are considered to be potential targets for biomarkers or drugs [5]. This is supported by the knowledge that one third of the currently listed biomarker candidates are classified as membrane proteins [3,6].…”