Recent advances in blood‐related proteomics

Abstract

Service régional vaudois de transfusion sanguine, Lausanne, SwitzerlandBlood is divided in two compartments, namely, plasma and cells. The latter contain red blood cells, leukocytes, and platelets. From a descriptive medical discipline, hematology has evolved towards a pioneering discipline where molecular biology has permitted the development of prognostic and diagnostic indicators for disease. The recent advance in MS and protein separation now allows similar progress in the analysis of proteins. Proteomics offers great promise for the study of proteins in plasma/serum, indeed a number of proteomics databases for plasma/ serum have been established. This is a very complex body fluid containing lipids, carbohydrates, amino acids, vitamins, nucleic acids, hormones, and proteins. About 1500 different proteins have recently been identified, and a number of potential new markers of diseases have been characterized. Here, examples of the enormous promise of plasma/serum proteomic analysis for diagnostic/prognostic markers and information on disease mechanism are given. Within the blood are also a large number of different blood cell types that potentially hold similar information. Proteomics of red blood cells, until now, has not improved our knowledge of these cells, in contrast to the major progresses achieved while studying platelets and leukocytes. In the future, proteomics will change several aspects of hematology.

Plasma biomarkers of mouse aging

“…Albumin, for example, comprises of 60% of total serum protein mass (Rothemund et al 2003). These highly abundant proteins often result in high background 'smearing' of proteins on 2D gels (Thadikkaran et al 2005). Immuno-based albumin depletion kits often result in depletion of other proteins (Granger et al 2005).…”

Modifications of plasma proteome in long-lived rats fed on a coenzyme Q10-supplemented diet

“…Haptoglobin also functions as an antioxidant because it prevents oxidative damage mediated by free haemoglobin (Melamed-Frank et al, 2001). Haptoglobin has been shown to be a potential marker of cancer (Thadikkaran et al, 2005). Hemopexin is a plasma glycoprotein with a high binding affinity to heme, which is then transported to the liver.…”

Improved protocols for vibrational spectroscopic analysis of body fluids

“…Bound to high-abundance proteins such as albumin, it represents a fingerprint of the molecular events taking place within different organs or tissues related to the presence of cancers but also modification to their close micro-environment [45,46]. Therefore, the analysis of protein imbalances in the serum can be directly related to, and indicative of, disease states [47][48][49][50]. Due to the complex composition of the serum, different tools can be employed for the detection of proteins levels, such as electrophoresis or 2D-SDS-PAGE.…”