Targeted Proteomics. Applications in the Study of Liver Disorders
Fernando J. Corrales
from: Proteomics: Targeted Technology, Innovations and Applications (Edited by: Manuel Fuentes and Joshua LaBaer). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2014)
Abstract
Liver diseases afflict currently more than 10% of the world population and their incidence is increasing. Although the main risk factors are known and the population at risk is routinely monitored, new biomarkers are urgently needed to allow early diagnosis and more effective therapeutic interventions. As proteins are the cellular tools used to perform most of the biological processes, proteomics, among all the commonly known as -omics technologies, is expected to provide, a closer envision of cellular functions and seminal information to understand human physiology in health and disease. Large-scale comparative proteomics have provided in the last few years great amounts of data that partially outline the principal pathogenic mechanisms of some liver diseases and point out to potential biomarkers. However, the stringent validation of the emerging hypotheses and the detection of covalently modified protein species of clinical relevance that usually represent a sub-stoichiometric and very low abundant fraction in complex biological matrices are still bottlenecks in translational research. Targeted proteomic approaches based on mass spectrometry and affinity-based enrichment methods will surely contribute to fill the gap between the discovery of large lists of candidate proteins and the evaluation of their clinical use on suitable sample cohorts read more ...
