Abstract
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a complex disorder involving both airways and lung parenchyma, usually associated with progressive and poorly reversible airflow limitation. In order to better characterize the phenotypic heterogeneity and the prognosis of patients with COPD, there is currently an urgent need for discovery and validation of reliable disease biomarkers. Within this context, proteomic and peptidomic techniques are emerging as very valuable tools that can be applied to both systemic and pulmonary samples, including peripheral blood, induced sputum, exhaled breath condensate, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, and lung tissues. Identification of COPD biomarkers by means of proteomic and peptidomic approaches can thus also lead to discovery of new molecular targets potentially useful to improve and personalize the therapeutic management of this widespread respiratory disease.
Highlights
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a widespread respiratory disorder involving both airways and lung parenchyma, usually characterized by progressive and poorly reversible airflow limitation and largely caused by tobacco smoke and air pollutants
A significant contribution could be provided by translational bench-to-bedside approaches, including the application of proteomic and peptidomic techniques to biological samples obtained from distinct subgroups of COPD patients [3]
The aim of this review is to provide an overview of both methods and samples used to investigate the proteomic and peptidomic profiles of patients with COPD
Summary
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a widespread respiratory disorder involving both airways and lung parenchyma, usually characterized by progressive and poorly reversible airflow limitation and largely caused by tobacco smoke and air pollutants. There is an urgent need to improve our knowledge of the inflammatory, immune, and structural substrates of the various COPD phenotypes, which should be ideally identifiable on the basis of expression of specific disease biomarkers In this regard, a significant contribution could be provided by translational bench-to-bedside (and back again) approaches, including the application of proteomic and peptidomic techniques to biological samples obtained from distinct subgroups of COPD patients [3]. In spite of the valuable importance of genomic and transcriptomic studies, a single gene or a single mature messenger RNA (mRNA) can be associated with several different proteins and peptides due to RNA splicing and editing, as well as to posttranslational modifications [4] This implies that mRNA cellular concentrations can even be poorly correlated with protein levels, which are essentially responsible for biologic functions and for the expression of physiologic and pathologic phenotypes. The latter is mainly finalized to target a restricted window of the proteome, consisting of peptides and small proteins not manageable by conventional gel electrophoresis
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
