Advances in endometrial cancer protein biomarkers for use in the clinic.

Endometrial cancer (EC) is the fourth most common cancer in women in developed countries. The identification of sensitive and specific biomarkers to improve early detection of EC is crucial for an appropriate management of this disease, in which 30% of patients are diagnosed only at advanced stages, which is associated with high levels of morbidity and mortality. Despite major efforts and investments made to identify EC biomarkers, no protein has yet reached the stage of clinical application.

Targeted Proteomics Identifies Proteomic Signatures in Liquid Biopsies of the Endometrium to Diagnose Endometrial Cancer and Assist in the Prediction of the Optimal Surgical Treatment.

Endometrial cancer (EC) diagnosis relies on the observation of tumor cells in endometrial biopsies obtained by aspiration (i.e., uterine aspirates), but it is associated with 22% undiagnosed patients and up to 50% of incorrectly assigned EC histotype and grade.

An "on-matrix" digestion procedure for AP-MS experiments dissects the interplay between complex-conserved and serotype-specific reactivities in Dengue virus-human plasma interactome.

The interactions between the four Dengue virus (DENV) serotypes and plasma proteins are crucial in the initial steps of viral infection to humans. Affinity purification combined with quantitative mass spectrometry analysis, has become one of the most powerful tools for the investigation on novel protein-protein interactions. Using this approach, we report here that a significant number of bait-interacting proteins do not dissociate under standard elution conditions, i.

Development of a sequential workflow based on LC-PRM for the verification of endometrial cancer protein biomarkers in uterine aspirate samples.

About 30% of endometrial cancer (EC) patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage of the disease, which is associated with a drastic decrease in the 5-year survival rate. The identification of biomarkers in uterine aspirate samples, which are collected by a minimally invasive procedure, would improve early diagnosis of EC. We present a sequential workflow to select from a list of potential EC biomarkers, those which are the most promising to enter a validation study.

Parallel reaction monitoring using quadrupole-Orbitrap mass spectrometer: Principle and applications.

Targeted mass spectrometry-based approaches are nowadays widely used for quantitative proteomics studies and more recently have been implemented on high resolution/accurate mass (HRAM) instruments resulting in a considerable performance improvement. More specifically, the parallel reaction monitoring technique (PRM) performed on quadrupole-Orbitrap mass spectrometers, leveraging the high resolution and trapping capabilities of the instrument, offers a clear advantage over the conventional selected reaction monitoring (SRM) measurements executed on triple quadrupole instruments. Analyses performed in HRAM mode allow for an improved discrimination between signals derived from analytes and those resulting from matrix interferences translating in the reliable quantification of low abundance components.

Dataset on protein composition of a human plasma sub-proteome able to modulate the Dengue 2 virus infection in Huh 7.5 cells.

The four serotypes of dengue virus (DENV1-4) are the causal agents of the emerging disease Dengue Fever and its severe forms. DENV is inoculated into human blood through a mosquito bite. Thus, plasma is an important media for DENV dissemination in infected persons and several important interactions should take place for the virus with human plasma proteins that strongly influence or may determine the course of the infection.

Complexity reduction of clinical samples for routine mass spectrometric analysis.

The precise measurement of protein abundance levels in highly complex biological samples such as plasma remains challenging. The wide range of protein concentrations impairs the detection of low-abundant species and the high number of peptide components to analyze results in interferences leading to erroneous quantitative results. The advances in MS instrumentation, with improved selectivity and sensitivity, partially address these issues, but sample preparation techniques remain the pivotal element to obtain robust routine mass spectrometric assays with a low LOD.

The use of proteases complementary to trypsin to probe isoforms and modifications.

The wide diversity of proteins expressed in a cell or a tissue as a result of gene variants, RNA editing or PTMs results in several hundred thousand distinct functional proteins called proteoforms. The large-scale analysis of proteomes has been driven by bottom-up MS approaches. This allowed to identify and quantify large numbers of gene products and perform PTM profiling which yielded a significant number of biological discoveries.

Novel interactions of domain III from the envelope glycoprotein of dengue 2 virus with human plasma proteins.

Unlabelled: Blood cells and plasma are important media for the four serotypes of dengue virus (DENV1-4) spreading into an infected person. Thus, interactions with human plasma proteins are expected to be decisive in the course of the viral infection. Affinity purification followed by MS analysis (AP/MS) was used to isolate and identify plasma-derived proteins capable to interact with a recombinant protein comprising the domain III of the envelope protein of DENV2 (DIIIE2).

Longitudinal Urinary Protein Variability in Participants of the Space Flight Simulation Program.

Urine is a valuable material for the diagnosis of renal pathologies and to investigate the effects of their treatment. However, the variability in protein abundance in the context of normal homeostasis remains a major challenge in urinary proteomics. In this study, the analysis of urine samples collected from healthy individuals, rigorously selected to take part in the MARS-500 spaceflight simulation program, provided a unique opportunity to estimate normal concentration ranges for an extended set of urinary proteins.

Advances in high-resolution quantitative proteomics: implications for clinical applications.

The advances in high-resolution mass spectrometry instrumentation, capable of accurate mass measurement and fast acquisition, have enabled new approaches for targeted quantitative proteomics. More specifically, analyses performed on quadrupole-orbitrap mass spectrometers operated in parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) mode leverage the intrinsic high resolving power and trapping capabilities. The PRM technique offers unmatched degrees of selectivity and analytical sensitivity, typically required to analyze peptides in complex samples, such as those encountered in biomedical research or clinical studies.

Quantification of SAA1 and SAA2 in lung cancer plasma using the isotype-specific PRM assays.

The quantification of plasma proteins using the high resolution and accurate mass (HR/AM)-based parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) method provides an immediate benefit over the conventional SRM-based method in terms of selectivity. In this study, multiplexed PRM assays were developed to analyze isotypes of serum amyloid A (SAA) proteins in human plasma with a focus on SAA1 and SAA2. Elevated plasma levels of these proteins in patients diagnosed with lung cancer have been reported in previous studies.

Exosomes released by chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells induce the transition of stromal cells into cancer-associated fibroblasts.

Exosomes derived from solid tumor cells are involved in immune suppression, angiogenesis, and metastasis, but the role of leukemia-derived exosomes has been less investigated. The pathogenesis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is stringently associated with a tumor-supportive microenvironment and a dysfunctional immune system. Here, we explore the role of CLL-derived exosomes in the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which malignant cells create this favorable surrounding.

Detection and quantification of proteins in clinical samples using high resolution mass spectrometry.

Quantitative proteomics has benefited from the recent development of mass spectrometers capable of high-resolution and accurate-mass (HR/AM) measurements. While targeted experiments are routinely performed on triple quadrupole instruments in selected reaction monitoring (SRM; often referred as multiple reaction monitoring, MRM) mode, the quadrupole-orbitrap mass spectrometers allow quantification in MS/MS mode, also known as parallel reaction monitoring (PRM). This technique is characterized by higher selectivity and better confidence in the assignment of the precursor and fragment ions, and thus translates into an improved analytical performance.

Large-Scale Targeted Proteomics Using Internal Standard Triggered-Parallel Reaction Monitoring (IS-PRM).

Targeted high-resolution and accurate mass analyses performed on fast sequencing mass spectrometers have opened new avenues for quantitative proteomics. More specifically, parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) implemented on quadrupole-orbitrap instruments exhibits exquisite selectivity to discriminate interferences from analytes. Furthermore, the instrument trapping capability enhances the sensitivity of the measurements.

Screening protein isoforms predictive for cancer using immunoaffinity capture and fast LC-MS in PRM mode.

Purpose: We report an immunocapture strategy to extract proteins known to harbor driver mutations for a defined cancer type before the simultaneous assessment of their mutational status by MS. Such a method bypasses the sensitivity and selectivity issues encountered during the analysis of unfractionated complex biological samples.

Experimental Design: Fast LC separations using short nanobore columns hyphenated with a high-resolution quadrupole-orbitrap mass spectrometer have been devised to take advantage of fast MS cycle times in conjunction with sharp chromatographic peak widths to accelerate the sample analysis throughput.

Verification of the biomarker candidates for non-small-cell lung cancer using a targeted proteomics approach.

Lung cancer, with its high metastatic potential and high mortality rate, is the worldwide leading cause of cancer-related deaths. High-throughput "omics"-based platforms have accelerated the discovery of biomarkers for lung cancer, and the resulting candidates are to be evaluated for their diagnostic potential as noninvasive biomarkers. The evaluation of the biomarker candidates involves the quantitative measurement of large numbers of proteins in bodily fluids using advanced mass spectrometric techniques.

Advances in high-resolution accurate mass spectrometry application to targeted proteomics.

Targeted quantitative proteomic analyses aim at systematically measuring the abundance of proteins in large sets of samples, without biases or missing values. One typical implementation is the verification of biomarker candidates in bodily fluids, which measures extended lists of validated transitions using triple quadrupole instruments in selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode. However, the selectivity of this mass spectrometer is limited by the resolving power of its mass analyzers, and interferences may require the reanalysis of the samples.

Recent advances in targeted proteomics for clinical applications.

MS-based approaches using targeted methods have been widely adopted by the proteomics community to study clinical questions such as the evaluation of biomarkers. At present, the most widely used targeted MS method is the SRM technique typically performed on a triple quadrupole instrument. However, the high analytical demands for performing clinical studies in combination with the extreme complexity of the samples involved are a serious challenge.

Protein quantification using a cleavable reporter peptide.

Peptide and protein quantification based on isotope dilution and mass spectrometry analysis are widely employed for the measurement of biomarkers and in system biology applications. The accuracy and reliability of such quantitative assays depend on the quality of the stable-isotope labeled standards. Although the quantification using stable-isotope labeled peptides is precise, the accuracy of the results can be severely biased by the purity of the internal standards, their stability and formulation, and the determination of their concentration.

Quantification of proteins in urine samples using targeted mass spectrometry methods.

Numerous clinical proteomics studies are focused on the development of biomarkers to improve either diagnostics for early disease detection or the monitoring of the response to the treatment. Although, a wealth of biomarker candidates are available, their evaluation and validation in a true clinical setup remains challenging. In biomarkers evaluation studies, a panel of proteins of interest are systematically analyzed in a large cohort of samples.

Quantitative proteomics using the high resolution accurate mass capabilities of the quadrupole-orbitrap mass spectrometer.

High resolution/accurate mass hybrid mass spectrometers have considerably advanced shotgun proteomics and the recent introduction of fast sequencing capabilities has expanded its use for targeted approaches. More specifically, the quadrupole-orbitrap instrument has a unique configuration and its new features enable a wide range of experiments. An overview of the analytical capabilities of this instrument is presented, with a focus on its application to quantitative analyses.

Improvement of the performance of targeted LC-MS assays through enrichment of histidine-containing peptides.

Mass spectrometric-based quantification using targeted methods has matured during the past decade and is now commonly used in proteomics. However, the reliability of protein quantification in complex matrixes using selected reaction monitoring is often impaired by interfering signals arising from coelution of nontargeted components. Sample preparation methods resulting in the reduction of the number of peptides present in the mixture minimizes this effect.