Combinatorial ligand libraries as a two-dimensional method for proteome analysis

Plasma/serum proteomics: depletion strategies for reducing high-abundance proteins for biomarker discovery

Plasma and serum are widely used for proteomics-based biomarker discovery. However, analysis of these biofluids is highly challenging due to the complexity and wide dynamic range of their proteomes. Notably, highly abundant proteins tend to obscure the detection of potential biomarkers that are usually of lower concentrations. Among the strategies to resolve this problem are: depletion of high-abundance proteins, enrichment of low abundant proteins of interest and prefractionation. In this review, we focus on current and emerging depletion techniques used to enhance the detection and identification of the less abundant proteins in plasma and serum. We discuss the applications and contributions of these methods to proteomics analysis of plasma and serum alongside their limitations and future perspectives.

Current state of the art for enhancing urine biomarker discovery

INTRODUCTION

Urine is a highly desirable biospecimen for biomarker analysis because it can be collected recurrently by non-invasive techniques, in relatively large volumes. Urine contains cellular elements, biochemicals, and proteins derived from glomerular filtration of plasma, renal tubule excretion, and urogenital tract secretions that reflect, at a given time point, an individual's metabolic and pathophysiologic state.

AREAS COVERED

High-resolution mass spectrometry, coupled with state of the art fractionation systems are revealing the plethora of diagnostic/prognostic proteomic information existing within urinary exosomes, glycoproteins, and proteins. Affinity capture pre-processing techniques such as combinatorial peptide ligand libraries and biomarker harvesting hydrogel nanoparticles are enabling measurement/identification of previously undetectable urinary proteins. Expert commentary: Future challenges in the urinary proteomics field include a) defining either single or multiple, universally applicable data normalization methods for comparing results within and between individual patients/data sets, and b) defining expected urinary protein levels in healthy individuals.

Mixed-bed affinity chromatography: principles and methods

Mixed-bed chromatography is far from being a well-established technology within the panoply of bioseparation tools. Composed of an assembly of distinct sorbents that are mixed in a single bed, they have been mostly developed in the last decade for the reduction of dynamic concentration range where they allowed discovering many low-copy proteins within very complex proteomes. Other interesting preparative applications of mixed-bed chromatography have since been developed. In this chapter the basic concepts first and then detailed application recipes are described for (1) the reduction of protein dynamic concentration range, (2) the removal of impurity traces at the last stage of a biopurification process, and (3) the selection and use of sorbents as mixed bed in protein purification.

Sample treatment methods involving combinatorial peptide ligand libraries for improved proteomes analyses

If used in an optimized manner, the technology of combinatorial peptide solid-phase libraries can easily improve the analytical determinations of proteomes by several factors. The discovery of novel species and of early stage biomarkers becomes thus reachable with a simple sample treatment. This report describes the most important point to consider (overloading and full recovery) along with a minimum scientific background and gives then detailed recipes to laboratory technicians. Orientations for optional routes are also given according to the objective of the experimental investigations. This covers different approaches to capture proteins of very low abundance. Total protein harvestings to prevent partial losses are also described such as single exhaustive desorption and fractionated elutions for more detailed analyses. Documented results are also reported demonstrating the capability of the technology well beyond what is the common assumption.

The latest advancements in proteomic two-dimensional gel electrophoresis analysis applied to biological samples

Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE) is one of the fundamental approaches in proteomics for the separation and visualization of complex protein mixtures. Proteins can be analyzed by 2DE using isoelectric focusing (IEF) in the first dimension, combined to sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) in the second dimension, gel staining (silver and Coomassie), image analysis, and 2DE gel database. High-resolution 2DE can resolve up to 5,000 different proteins simultaneously (∼2,000 proteins routinely), and detect and quantify <1 ng of protein per spot. Here, we describe the latest developments for a more complete analysis of biological fluids.