Publications by authors named "Thomas L Fillmore"

Article Synopsis
  • A study explored the mechanisms behind diabetic kidney disease (DKD) in type 2 diabetes patients using advanced mass spectrometry techniques in two cohorts from different continents.
  • The research identified urinary biomarkers linked to kidney disease progression, focusing on protein groups that indicated higher risks of worsening kidney function.
  • Results revealed that certain urine proteins related to the complement system were strongly associated with faster disease progression, supporting their potential role as biomarkers in DKD assessment.
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  • Researchers are focusing on improving proteomic techniques to analyze tissue differences in a way that reflects specific cell types, which could enhance our understanding of complex biological systems like human organs.
  • Current methods for spatially resolved proteomics face challenges in sensitivity and sample recovery, limiting their ability to thoroughly analyze protein content.
  • The study combines advanced technologies, including laser capture microdissection and microPOTS, to significantly increase protein detection, demonstrating the capability to analyze over 5000 proteins from tiny tissue samples and making the process more accessible to research labs.
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  • Despite extensive research on genomic changes in glioblastoma, the survival rate remains under 5% after five years.
  • This study aims to broaden the understanding of high-grade glioma by combining various biological analyses (proteomics, metabolomics, etc.) to identify complex regulatory mechanisms involved in tumor growth and progression.
  • Results from analysis of 228 tumors indicate significant variability in early-stage changes, but they converge on common outcomes affecting protein interactions and modifications, highlighting PTPN11's crucial role in high-grade gliomas.
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  • The study highlights the advantages of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) over traditional immunoassays for measuring insulin and C-peptide, which can enhance patient care quality.
  • Researchers from the TaMADOR consortium conducted rigorous testing to ensure the assay's precision and linearity across different laboratories, using shared materials for consistency.
  • Results showed strong performance metrics, indicating that LC-MS/MS could standardize measurements and improve accuracy in diabetes research and patient management.
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Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic condition caused by autoimmune destruction of the insulin-producing pancreatic β cells. While it is known that gene-environment interactions play a key role in triggering the autoimmune process leading to T1D, the pathogenic mechanism leading to the appearance of islet autoantibodies-biomarkers of autoimmunity-is poorly understood. Here we show that disruption of the complement system precedes the detection of islet autoantibodies and persists through disease onset.

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  • The study aims to identify proteins that can help determine which individuals are at high risk for developing lung cancer by analyzing bronchial cells from different risk groups.
  • Researchers validated 55 candidate proteins associated with lung cancer risk using sensitive techniques in both a smaller and larger group of participants.
  • They found that two proteins, ALDH3A1 and AKR1B10, were consistently overexpressed in high-risk individuals, supporting their potential as biomarkers for lung cancer risk assessment.
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We characterized a prospective endometrial carcinoma (EC) cohort containing 138 tumors and 20 enriched normal tissues using 10 different omics platforms. Targeted quantitation of two peptides can predict antigen processing and presentation machinery activity, and may inform patient selection for immunotherapy. Association analysis between MYC activity and metformin treatment in both patients and cell lines suggests a potential role for metformin treatment in non-diabetic patients with elevated MYC activity.

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Marine algae are responsible for half of the world's primary productivity, but this critical carbon sink is often constrained by insufficient iron. One species of marine algae, , is remarkable for its ability to maintain photosynthesis and thrive in low-iron environments. A related species, Bardawil, shares this attribute but is an extremophile found in hypersaline environments.

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Type 1 diabetes (T1D) results from autoimmune destruction of β cells. Insufficient availability of biomarkers represents a significant gap in understanding the disease cause and progression. We conduct blinded, two-phase case-control plasma proteomics on the TEDDY study to identify biomarkers predictive of T1D development.

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Article Synopsis
  • There is a growing interest in detailed proteomic methods to analyze tissue diversity at the level of individual cell types, which can enhance our understanding of complex biological systems like human organs.
  • Current spatially resolved proteomics techniques struggle with depth and sensitivity in profiling due to poor sample recovery.
  • The study successfully integrates laser capture microdissection with advanced microfluidic processing and peptide fractionation, enabling the identification of over 5,000 unique proteins from tiny pancreatic tissue samples, revealing distinct microenvironments within islets.
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Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second leading cause of male cancer-related deaths in the United States. The pre-mature forms of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), proPSA, were shown to be associated with PCa. However, there is a technical challenge in the development of antibody-based immunoassays for specific recognition of each individual proPSA isoform.

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Perturbation to the redox state accompanies many diseases and its effects are viewed through oxidation of biomolecules, including proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. The thiol groups of protein cysteine residues undergo an array of redox post-translational modifications (PTMs) that are important for regulation of protein and pathway function. To better understand what proteins are redox regulated following a perturbation, it is important to be able to comprehensively profile protein thiol oxidation at the proteome level.

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Mass-spectrometry-based proteomic analysis is a powerful approach for discovering new disease biomarkers. However, certain critical steps of study design such as cohort selection, evaluation of statistical power, sample blinding and randomization, and sample/data quality control are often neglected or underappreciated during experimental design and execution. This tutorial discusses important steps for designing and implementing a liquid-chromatography-mass-spectrometry-based biomarker discovery study.

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Penicillin binding protein 2a (PBP2a)-dependent resistance to β-lactam antibiotics in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is regulated by the activity of the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle via a poorly understood mechanism. We report that mutations in and , but not other TCA cycle enzymes, negatively impact β-lactam resistance without changing PBP2a expression. Increased intracellular levels of succinyl coenzyme A (succinyl-CoA) in the mutant significantly perturbed lysine succinylation in the MRSA proteome.

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Our study details the stepwise evolution of gilteritinib resistance in FLT3-mutated acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Early resistance is mediated by the bone marrow microenvironment, which protects residual leukemia cells. Over time, leukemia cells evolve intrinsic mechanisms of resistance, or late resistance.

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Targeted proteomics is a mass spectrometry-based protein quantification technique with high sensitivity, accuracy, and reproducibility. As a key component in the multi-omics toolbox of systems biology, targeted liquid chromatography-selected reaction monitoring (LC-SRM) measurements are critical for enzyme and pathway identification and design in metabolic engineering. To fulfill the increasing need for analyzing large sample sets with faster turnaround time in systems biology, high-throughput LC-SRM is greatly needed.

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Background: Approximately 85% of the U.S. military active duty population is male and less than 50 years of age, with elevated levels of known risk factors for oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC), including smoking, excessive use of alcohol, and greater numbers of sexual partners, and elevated prevalence of human papilloma virus (HPV).

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Although ~40% of screen-detected prostate cancers (PCa) are indolent, advanced-stage PCa is a lethal disease with 5-year survival rates around 29%. Identification of biomarkers for early detection of aggressive disease is a key challenge. Starting with 52 candidate biomarkers, selected from existing PCa genomics datasets and known PCa driver genes, we used targeted mass spectrometry to quantify proteins that significantly differed in primary tumors from PCa patients treated with radical prostatectomy (RP) across three study outcomes: (i) metastasis ≥1-year post-RP, (ii) biochemical recurrence ≥1-year post-RP, and (iii) no progression after ≥10 years post-RP.

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Phycobilisomes (PBSs) are large (3-5 megadalton) pigment-protein complexes in cyanobacteria that associate with thylakoid membranes and harvest light primarily for photosystem II. PBSs consist of highly ordered assemblies of pigmented phycobiliproteins (PBPs) and linker proteins that can account for up to half of the soluble protein in cells. Cyanobacteria adjust to changing environmental conditions by modulating PBS size and number.

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Two-dimensional reversed-phase capillary liquid chromatography (2D RPLC) separations have enabled comprehensive proteome profiling of biological systems. However, milligram sample quantities of proteins are typically required due to significant losses during offline fractionation. Such a large sample requirement generally precludes the application samples in the nanogram to low-microgram range.

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Article Synopsis
  • Hepcidin is a crucial peptide hormone produced by the liver that regulates iron metabolism and may be linked to diseases like cancer.
  • Current mass spectrometry assays struggle with quantifying hepcidin accurately because of low fragmentation efficiency and challenges in synthesizing a standard.
  • A new sensitive targeted mass spectrometry assay using alkylated hepcidin has been developed, showing higher sensitivity and improved quantification in clinical samples, with cancer patients exhibiting significantly higher hepcidin levels than non-cancerous individuals.
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Heterogeneity in composition is inherent in all cell populations, even those containing a single cell type. Single-cell proteomics characterization of cell heterogeneity is currently achieved by antibody-based technologies, which are limited by the availability of high-quality antibodies. Herein we report a simple, easily implemented, mass spectrometry (MS)-based targeted proteomics approach, termed cLC-SRM (carrier-assisted liquid chromatography coupled to selected reaction monitoring), for reliable multiplexed quantification of proteins in low numbers of mammalian cells.

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Targeted proteomics experiments based on selected reaction monitoring (SRM) have gained wide adoption in the use of clinical biomarkers, cellular modeling, and numerous other biological experiments due to their highly accurate and reproducible quantification. The quantitative accuracy in targeted proteomics experiments is reliant on the stable-isotope, heavy-labeled peptide standards that are spiked into a sample and used as a reference when calculating the abundance of endogenous peptides. Therefore, the quality of measurement for these standards is a critical factor in determining whether data acquisition was successful.

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There is an unmet technical challenge for mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomic analysis of single mammalian cells. Quantitative proteomic analysis of single cells has been previously achieved by antibody-based immunoassays but is limited by the availability of high-quality antibodies. Herein we report a facile targeted MS-based proteomics method, termed cPRISM-SRM (carrier-assisted high-pressure, high-resolution separations with intelligent selection and multiplexing coupled to selected reaction monitoring), for reliable analysis of low numbers of mammalian cells.

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Top-down proteomics is an emerging analytical strategy to characterize combinatorial protein post-translational modifications (PTMs). However, sample complexity and small mass differences between chemically closely related proteoforms often limit the resolution attainable by separations employing a single liquid chromatographic (LC) principle. In particular, for ultramodified proteins like histones, extensive and time-consuming fractionation is needed to achieve deep proteoform coverage.

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