Cover Picture: Proteomics – Clinical Applications 10/09

Abstract

AbstractA cell on the go‐go: Eosinophil‐oEosinophils have been described as “pleiotropic multifunctional” cells that have their tendrils in a wide variety of immunoregulatory and inflammatory “pots”. And when they don't work, all sorts of things can go wrong – asthma, allergy, and parasite infections for a start. As they mature, eosinophils are posted to various tissues – mammary gland, thymus, lung, uterus, and gastrointestinal tract are a few. At inflammatory sites, they may be pro‐ or anti‐inflammatory depending on the balance of control exerted through cytokines, chemokines, growth factors and more. Using 2DE MALDI‐TOF and TOF/TOF, Straub et al., identified 3141 expressed proteins. Bronchial asthma is a particularly serious case in point – 16 million adults and 6 million children developed the eosinophil‐linked disease in 2006, but even with all of the – kine and other control points, no curative or prognostic biomarkers have been found to date. Clearly, a target for further discovery work.Straub, C. et al., Proteomics Clin. Appl. 2009, 3, 1151–1173.Delaminating tire‐tread model for arterial diseaseTracking the initiation and growth of an atherosclerotic lesion is a challenging problem. Different activities take place in different layers of the arterial structure: the inner (intima), middle (media), and the outer. Most of the arterial proteome work done previously was done on whole artery extracts. de la Cuesta et al., however, took a high‐resolution approach, using laser microdissection and pressure catapulting to isolate samples of the individual layers free of other layers and serum‐containing structures. Samples were analyzed by 2D DIGE (saturation labeling) and by in gel digestion with LC MS/MS. They optimized staining and solubilization for various artery and layer types, creating a foundation for further studies.de la Cuesta, F. et al., Proteomics Clin. Appl. 2009, 3, 1174–1184.Ups and downs of cancer markersColorectal cancer (CRC) is among the top five cancer killers in North America and Europe and rising rapidly in industrializing Asia. Its lethality (half a million deaths per year) is partly due to the difficulty in spotting it early, before it has begun to metastasize. Being able to evaluate lymph nodes for metastasis would allow much more effective therapy. Yue et al. joined the fray and report their initial findings here. Their study group included members with and without lymph node metastases. Using conventional proteomic tools (2DE, LC‐MS/MS), they found 12 proteins differentially expressed. Principal component analysis and linear discriminant analysis identified two strong candidates: T complex protein 1 zeta (TPCZ) and peptidyl‐prolyl cis–trans isomerase B (PPIB). After initial identification, they were further tested by wound healing, western blots, expression and DNA arrays.Yue, F. et al., Proteomics Clin. Appl. 2009, 3, 1225–1235.