Unraveling the complex proteome for biomarker discovery in gastrointestinal and liver diseases

Biomarker discovery and applications for foods and beverages: proteomics to nanoproteomics

Foods and beverages have been at the heart of our society for centuries, sustaining humankind - health, life, and the pleasures that go with it. The more we grow and develop as a civilization, the more we feel the need to know about the food we eat and beverages we drink. Moreover, with an ever increasing demand for food due to the growing human population food security remains a major concern. Food safety is another growing concern as the consumers prefer varied foods and beverages that are not only traded nationally but also globally. The 21st century science and technology is at a new high, especially in the field of biological sciences. The availability of genome sequences and associated high-throughput sensitive technologies means that foods are being analyzed at various levels. For example and in particular, high-throughput omics approaches are being applied to develop suitable biomarkers for foods and beverages and their applications in addressing quality, technology, authenticity, and safety issues. Proteomics are one of those technologies that are increasingly being utilized to profile expressed proteins in different foods and beverages. Acquired knowledge and protein information have now been translated to address safety of foods and beverages. Very recently, the power of proteomic technology has been integrated with another highly sensitive and miniaturized technology called nanotechnology, yielding a new term nanoproteomics. Nanoproteomics offer a real-time multiplexed analysis performed in a miniaturized assay, with low-sample consumption and high sensitivity. To name a few, nanomaterials - quantum dots, gold nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, and nanowires - have demonstrated potential to overcome the challenges of sensitivity faced by proteomics for biomarker detection, discovery, and application. In this review, we will discuss the importance of biomarker discovery and applications for foods and beverages, the contribution of proteomic technology in this process, and a shift towards nanoproteomics to suitably address associated issues. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Translational plant proteomics.

Proteomics in nutrition: status quo and outlook for biomarkers and bioactives

Food and beverages are the only physical matter we take into our body, if we disregard the air we inhale and the drugs we may have to apply. While traditional nutrition research has aimed at providing nutrients to nourish populations and preventing specific nutrient deficiencies, it more recently explores health-related aspects of individual bioactive components as well as entire diets and this at group rather than population level. The new era of nutrition research translates empirical knowledge to evidence-based molecular science. Modern nutrition research focuses on promoting health, preventing or delaying the onset of disease, optimizing performance, and assessing risk. Personalized nutrition is a conceptual analogue to personalized medicine and means adapting food to individual needs. Nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics build the science foundation for understanding human variability in preferences, requirements, and responses to diet and may become the future tools for consumer assessment motivated by personalized nutritional counseling for health maintenance and disease prevention. The scope of this paper is to review the current and future aspects of nutritional proteomics, focusing on the two main outputs: identification of health biomarkers and analysis of food bioactives.

Proteomics and cancer epidemiology

Profiling of differentially expressed proteins is perhaps the most important and useful approach in developing tools for risk assessment in a population, diagnostic screening, and therapeutics. Proteomic markers have potential for identifying individuals at high risk of developing cancer; however, these markers have not been extensively used in cancer epidemiologic studies. Several markers have to be clinically validated. In this chapter, methods used in proteomic analysis of clinical samples, challenges in the proteomics and cancer epidemiology, and their potential solutions are discussed.