Peer Reviewed: SELDI-TOF MS for Diagnostic Proteomics

Abstract

AT he urgent need to identify disease biomark- ers is underscored by the improved survival rates of patients diagnosed in the early stages of cancer.Discovery, identification, and validation of proteins associated with a particular disease state present a difficult and laborious task, often requiring the analysis of hundreds, if not thousands, of samples.The predominant proteomic method for discovering disease biomarkers is two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-D-PAGE), in which proteins from two distinct samples are analyzed and their protein expression patterns compared.Protein spots of interest are excised from the gel and proteolytically or chemically digested, and the resultant peptides are analyzed by MS to identify the protein.As a separation technique, 2-D-PAGE provides excellent resolution of complex protein mixtures.However, the method is laborious, has low sensitivity to conventional stains, and cannot resolve proteins with extremes in molecular weight, hydrophobicity, and isoelectric points.