A simplified and efficient extracellular vesicle-based proteomics strategy for early diagnosis of colorectal cancer.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major cause of cancer-related death worldwide and an effective screening strategy for diagnosis of early-stage CRC is highly desired. Although extracellular vesicles (EVs) are expected to become some of the most promising tools for liquid biopsy of early disease diagnosis, the existing EV-based proteomics methods for practical application in clinical samples are limited by technical challenges in high-throughput isolation and detection of EVs. In the current study, we have developed a simplified and efficient EV-based proteomics strategy for early diagnosis of CRC.

Discovery of cisplatin-binding proteins by competitive cysteinome profiling.

Cisplatin is a widely used cancer metallodrug that induces cytotoxicity by targeting DNA and chelating cysteines in proteins. Here we applied a competitive activity-based protein profiling strategy to identify cisplatin-binding cysteines in cancer proteomes. A novel cisplatin target, MetAP1, was identified and functionally validated to contribute to cisplatin's cytotoxicity.

Quantitative profiling of PTM stoichiometry by resolvable mass tags.

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) play important roles in modulating the biological functions of proteins. Stoichiometry, which quantifies the modification percentage, is a critical factor for any given PTM. In this work, we developed a chemoproteomic strategy called "STO-MS" to systematically quantify the PTM stoichiometry in complex biological samples.