Mass Spectrometry for Cancer Biomarkers

Abstract

Cancer is considered as the second cause of morbidity and also mortality, after cardiovascular diseases. Despite the immense progress in efficacious biomarkers made in the present time, there are very few of them that can timely detect cancers or that can predict treatment outcomes or stratify patients according to their response to the treatment. Among other modern instruments involved in the research of this disease, proteomics emerged strongly, since it analyzes the "molecular effectors." Although it has some setbacks (like the lack of amplification of the signal), it is however one of the best means of investigating the presence and causes and predicting the evolution patterns of the disease. This chapter describes briefly pre-analytical (pre-MS steps), the main concepts, and the MS equipment used for such applications, followed by the presentation of several proteomic applications in melanoma, glioblastoma, pancreatic cancer, and colon cancer.

Ganglioside analysis in body fluids by liquid‐phase separation techniques hyphenated to mass spectrometry

“…Over 100 distinct ganglioside components, characterized by a prominent diversity of the ceramide chains, of which some novel or bearing biologically relevant modifications, were associated with human CSF following this IMS MS approach. An important remark is that more than 76% of the total gangliosides identified in CSF were found polysialylated, a percentage similar to the one detected in human brain (over 78%) using the same approach [14, 84, 85].…”

Mass Dynamics 1.0: A Streamlined, Web-Based Environment for Analyzing, Sharing, and Integrating Label-Free Data

“…Over the past few decades, proteomics research and the complexity of experimental research questions addressed by it have developed rapidly and are having a growing impact in biological and medical research. In particular, areas such as understanding mechanisms of action in disease progression and therapeutic intervention as well as detection of diagnostic markers, identifying candidates for vaccine production, and understanding pathogenic mechanisms and gene expression patterns have been of growing importance in advancing many areas of medically related research. , …”

“…In particular, areas such as understanding mechanisms of action in disease progression and therapeutic intervention as well as detection of diagnostic markers, identifying candidates for vaccine production, and understanding pathogenic mechanisms and gene expression patterns have been of growing importance in advancing many areas of medically related research. 1,2 Mass spectrometry via liquid chromatography (LC)/MS− MS is the leading technology in proteomics research, with label-free quantification (LFQ) and isotope-based labeling methods being two approaches that facilitate interrogation and measurement of many analytes in even very complex samples. Isotope-based labeling methods such as SILAC and TMT have provided the gold standard for protein quantification but are limited by their applicability to types of samples, which cannot be easily labeled, and by the associated cost of reagents required.…”