基于生物质谱的定量蛋白质组学研究进展

随着蛋白质组研究和生物质谱技术的发展,大规模的蛋白质组相对定量和绝对定量已经成为了解生命活动进程、疾病发生发展过程以及生物标志物筛选和验证的重要策略,并形成蛋白质组学研究领域的一个重要分支：定量蛋白质组学.综述了近年来定量蛋白质组学的研究进展,并对其中的关键技术进行讨论.     

基于质谱的蛋白质组学技术在神经退行性疾病生物标志物研究中的应用

蛋白质组学是在整体水平上研究细胞、组织或生物体蛋白质组成及变化规律的科学.与传统的生物学研究相比,蛋白质组学具有快速、灵敏、高通量的优点.神经退行性疾病是一类由神经系统内特定神经细胞的进程性病变或丢失而导致神经功能障碍的疾病,严重危害人类健康.近年来,基于质谱的蛋白质组学技术在神经退行性疾病的研究中得到了广泛应用.本文简要介绍了蛋白质组学在样品分离、多肽定量、质谱检测及生物标志物临床验证等方面的技术发展,并结合实例综述了基于质谱的蛋白质组学在神经退行性疾病生物标志物发现与验证中的研究进展.     

定量蛋白质组学分析方法

精确测量多个不同生理或病理条件下生物样本中蛋白质表达量的变化是定量蛋白质组学(quantitative proteomics)研究的重要内容。与传统的蛋白质定量方法(见表1)相比,组学规模的蛋白质定量可以实现在一次实验中对成百上千个蛋白质的定量测定和比较分析,为规模化发现和验证疾病诊断的生物标志物以及发展新的药物靶标提供了重要手段。     

液相色谱-质谱法比较分析正常人与胃癌患者的胃组织蛋白质

通过蛋白质组学技术筛选胃癌相关标志物是目前胃癌研究的热点,也是早期诊断的关键。针对组织蛋白质提取物非常复杂的特点,并根据疏水性的差异,采用反相液相色谱对正常及癌症组织提取蛋白质进行分离。通过比较正常及癌症组织提取蛋白质的谱图差异,收集并酶解差异最大的保留时间为45～47 min的馏分,采用液相色谱-多级质谱联用(LC-MS/MS)鉴定其酶解产物。鉴定结果显示,正常及癌症组织中的共有蛋白质为9个,正常组织中有6个特异蛋白质,而癌症组织中有17个特异蛋白质。通过进一步分析,筛选出胃癌组织中含有的丰度较高的两个蛋白质。应用生物信息学方法分析这些蛋白质,能为将来的药物靶点、药物作用通路研究提供更多的信息。     

差异蛋白质组学在水生动物免疫研究中的应用

差异蛋白质组学是指依据蛋白质样品在不同时期、不同组织、不同状态或不同外界条件下表达不同,来筛选、鉴定蛋白质,可以通过对差异蛋白质的分析鉴定研究编码该差异蛋白的基因,扩展对该基因功能的研究,也可以结合功能蛋白质组学研究,发现新的蛋白质,完善已有的蛋白质组数据库.     

福尔马林固定石蜡包埋组织切片蛋白质组分析方法与应用研究进展

福尔马林固定石蜡包埋(Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedding,FFPE)是最常见的临床组织保存技术,FFPE组织具有标准化的制备流程、易于存储、标本量大、包含较完整的临床回顾性信息等特点,而成为疾病生物标志物发掘的良好载体。近年来,基于临床FFPE组织的特点,发展了系列蛋白质组学研究方法,包括样本制备、消解、分离到蛋白质质谱鉴定等多个领域,总体呈现出微量、高灵敏度、高通量的技术特点,并已成功用于肿瘤精准医学等临床蛋白质组研究。该综述将对FFPE组织切片样本的蛋白质组学方法,以及其在肿瘤研究中的应用进行概述,从而为临床精准医学蛋白质组学的研究提供借鉴思路。     

血清和血清外泌体的蛋白质组分析及其在肝内胆管癌中的应用

外泌体是由各种类型细胞在正常或非正常生理情况下分泌释放至细胞外且携带多种生物活性分子的细胞外囊泡,在细胞间通讯和免疫应答等生物过程中发挥着重要作用。肝内胆管癌是一种胆道上皮恶性肿瘤,早期无明显临床症状且生存率较低,目前常用的诊断手段包括依赖于影像设备的诊断方式和灵敏度及特异性较低的诊断标志物等,这些手段的不足对发展新的特异性标志物提出了需求。该文对血清中的外泌体进行了分离和表征,并采用液相色谱-质谱技术针对健康组与肝内胆管癌患者组的血清样本和血清外泌体样本进行了无标记定量蛋白质组学分析,分别从两种类型样本中鉴定并筛选到271和430种可信蛋白质。基于血清样本和血清外泌体样本的可信蛋白质定量表达值进行多维统计分析都能将健康组与肝内胆管癌患者组良好地区分开。对血清样本中鉴定到的蛋白质进行差异蛋白质筛选,肝内胆管癌患者组相对于健康组有15个上调和8个下调蛋白质;对血清外泌体样本中鉴定到的蛋白质进行差异蛋白质筛选,肝内胆管癌患者组相对于健康组有33个上调和18个下调蛋白质;基于两种样本筛选到的差异蛋白质中仅有4个是重复的,且基于血清外泌体样本的51个差异蛋白质中有35个蛋白质属于外泌体蛋白质数据库。针对差异蛋白质进行生物学信息分析,与差异蛋白质相关的分子功能、生物过程和信号通路主要涉及天然免疫反应、炎症反应和凝血等过程。该研究为发现肝内胆管癌的潜在生物标志物和探究肝内胆管癌的发生、发展和转移等过程提供了参考和借鉴价值。此外,通过比较研究发现血清外泌体样本能够获得较多的差异蛋白质和生物学信息,证明了外泌体作为组学分析样本的价值和应用潜力。     

基于3种非天然糖代谢标记的分泌蛋白质组分析性能对比

分泌蛋白质是调控细胞间信号转导的重要生物大分子。由于分泌蛋白的丰度相比于胞内蛋白以及培养基添加剂更低,因此分泌蛋白的高通量鉴定是目前蛋白质组学界研究的热点和难点。目前,基于生物质谱的分泌蛋白质组学分析一般均需要从无血清的条件培养基中获得分泌蛋白质,再对其进行富集和分析。该流程操作步骤繁琐,易造成分泌蛋白质的损失和降解。本工作采用基于生物正交化学生物学技术实现对分泌蛋白质的高选择性标记和高效富集。通过结合点击化学技术,综合评估了分泌蛋白质分析中用于代谢标记的不同糖类似物。采用3种最常用的商品化糖类似物,N-叠氮乙酰甘露糖胺(ManNAz)、N-叠氮乙酰半乳糖胺(GalNAz)和N-叠氮乙酰葡萄糖胺(GlcNAz)分别对HeLa细胞进行代谢标记,之后通过炔基生物素探针对条件培养基中的分泌蛋白进行富集,结合质谱分析来对比3种糖类似物对分泌蛋白的标记效率。最后通过无标定量蛋白质组学分析,系统评估了3种糖类似物用于分泌蛋白质组分析的性能。结果表明,基于ManNAz的分泌蛋白标记方法鉴定到了282个分泌蛋白、224个细胞质膜蛋白以及846个N-糖基化位点;对分泌蛋白的富集效率分别较GalNAz和GlcNAz提高了130%和67.2%;对细胞质膜蛋白的富集效率较GalNAz和GlcNAz分别提高了273.3%和148.7%,体现出了明显的优势。本研究的实验结果为分泌蛋白高选择性富集和系统分析提供了有益的对比分析和新技术策略。     

基于Fe_3O_4/乙二胺四乙酸磁性粒子的集成化蛋白质组学方法

建立了基于Fe_3O_4/乙二胺四乙酸(EDTA)磁性粒子的集成化蛋白质组学研究方法。首先用共沉淀法合成EDTA负载的Fe_3O_4/EDTA磁性粒子。在优化的溶液条件下(95%乙腈-1%三氟乙酸,体积分数),100μg Fe_3O_4/EDTA磁性粒子可吸附12.4μg牛血清白蛋白(BSA),吸附容量是商品化磁珠的10倍左右。以BSA作为标准蛋白质,对所合成的Fe_3O_4/EDTA磁性粒子作为蛋白质组学反应器的酶解时间进行了优化,发现Fe_3O_4/EDTA磁性粒子处理BSA酶解1、8和16 h的肽段序列覆盖率和特征肽段结果相当。因此,可以将复杂的蛋白质样品前处理时间缩短至2 h内。最后,将所合成的Fe_3O_4/EDTA磁性粒子应用于血清的蛋白质组学研究,成功地鉴定出218种蛋白质,其中包含了41种美国食品药品管理局(FDA)认证的生物标志物。所发展的基于Fe_3O_4/EDTA磁性粒子的蛋白质组学样品前处理方法将蛋白质样品预富集、还原、烷基化、酶解、多肽除盐和洗脱等步骤集成到一起,减少了样品转移和处理所造成的损失。这种技术具有快速、灵敏和易于操作的特点,可用于临床蛋白质组学研究。     

超高效液相色谱-串联质谱法鉴定驼乳及其制品中的动物源性成分

采用蛋白质组学技术建立了驼乳及其制品中的动物乳源性成分特异性肽生物标志物的鉴定方法。样品经脱脂、蛋白质提取、胰蛋白酶水解后，利用超高效液相色谱-四极杆/静电场轨道阱高分辨质谱仪(UHPLC-Q/Exactive-HRMS)和Protein Pilot软件，实现了多肽生物标记物的鉴定；然后通过基本局部比对搜索工具(BLAST)与Uniprot数据库对比分析，筛选出了骆驼、家牛、水牛、牦牛、山羊、绵羊、驴和马共8个物种的22条肽生物标志物；最后利用超高效液相色谱-三重四极杆质谱(UHPLC-QqQ-MS)系统对这22条特征性多肽进行验证，采用多反应监测(MRM)模式建立了定量方法。实验优化了骆驼奶中酪蛋白的预处理方法，如冷冻脱脂、沉淀蛋白试剂和复溶液的选择等，并建立了基于生物标志物肽测定牛和山羊奶/奶粉掺假骆驼奶/奶粉的无标记定量方法。将牛、山羊和骆驼奶/奶粉等比例混合，分别对牛和山羊的特征肽段进行检测，结果显示，该方法对掺假液体乳/固体奶粉样品显示出良好的线性关系，抗干扰能力强，灵敏度高，重复性好，液态奶和奶粉的掺杂结果均与理论值接近。另外，该方法还被应用于11种骆驼奶和奶粉中家牛、水牛...     

From Chemistry to Translational Medicine: The Application of Proteomics to Cancer Biomarker Discovery and Diagnosis

The study of complex protein mixtures and their interactions in cells and tissues has been difficult due to the tedious process involved in their characterization and analysis. The recent emergence of fast‐evolving and state‐of‐the‐art proteomics methodologies has provided a rapid and scalable platform for understanding the comprehensive proteome profiles from complex whole tissues or cells of various biological sources. Therefore, proteomics has been increasingly valuable to examine real‐time changes in protein expression of various tissues or body fluids from patients with various diseases, especially cancer, resulting in the identification of clinically useful biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and disease staging. In this review, we focus on potential biomarkers for (1) Helicobacter pylori‐associated gastric cancer, (2) hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and (3) renal cell carcinoma (RCC). In addition to the conventional gel‐based proteomics (1‐D or 2‐D gels), we have utilized a more advanced proteomic approach by incorporating stable isotope dimethyl labelling and shotgun proteomics strategy in combination with nanoliquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (nanoLC‐MS/MS) to better characterize the biomarkers in several cancer tissues. By establishing a high‐throughput proteomics platform based on multiple reaction monitoring (MRM), we have successfully detected and analyzed potential protein markers at low concentrations in various normal and tumor tissues. This platform not only highlights the utility of proteomics for biomarker discovery but also can be uniquely applied to disease‐oriented translational medicine for diagnosis of diverse types of cancers and other diseases.     

Nano-flow multidimensional liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry for proteome analysis of hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the top five cancers with the highest incident of a disease worldwide. To understand the mechanisms of hepatocarcinogenesis, proteomics analysis provides a powerful tool to identify proteins that associate with HCC. We developed a two-step procedure for mapping of HCC proteomics. In the first step, in order to simplify the complexity of proteomics of HCC, the subfractionation of complex protein mixtures in HCC into “subproteomes” is presented based on the solubility of protein. While in the second step an automate comprehensive two-dimensional (2D) separation system, coupling strong cation-exchange (SCX) in the first dimension with capillary reversed-phase chromatography (cRPLC) in the second dimension is developed further to separate and analyze proteins associated with HCC. By using this system, complex sample can be injected, desalted, separated and analyzed in complete automatization. The procedure for proteomics analysis was found to be applied for proteins with great molecular mass (>100 000), small molecular mass (<20 000), highly basic (pI > 9.5) and hydrophobicity, which are not well resolved in 2D-gel electrophoresis. In total 229 proteins were identified by using the described proteomics platform. Among them, several proteins related to the process of carcinogenesis were investigated further.     

Iridium photosensitizer constructed liposomes with hypoxia-activated prodrug to destrust hepatocellular carcinoma

Hypoxic tumor microenvironment is a major challenge for photodynamic therapy(PDT). To overcome this problem, PDT combined hypoxia-activated chemotherapy is a promising strategy for hypoxic cancer therapy. Herein, a multifunctional liposome(AQ4N-Ir1-sorafenib-liposome) is prepared by encapsulating a hypoxia-activated prodrug AQ4N, a photosensitizer iridium(III) complex and hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) targeting drug sorafenib, for synergistic therapy of HCC. Ir1-mediated PDT upon irradiation ind...     

Myofibroblasts are important contributors to human hepatocellular carcinoma: Evidence for tumor promotion by proteome profiling

Liver cancer typically occurs with a background of chronic fibrosis, characterized by the accumulation of myofibroblast‐like cells. We performed 2D‐PAGE‐based comparative analyses with the aim to identify proteins expressed in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissue but not in neighboring healthy liver tissue, and to make out which cell types are responsible for the expression of proteins most characteristic for HCC. LC‐MS/MS analysis of the most striking spots identified proteins that were mainly related to myofibroblast‐like cells. To gain more insights into the role of these cells in their contribution to HCC, we isolated myofibroblast‐like cells as well as hepatocytes, both derived from HCC tissues, and subjected them to proteome profiling based on shotgun experiments. Comparative analysis, also referring to proteome profiles of other cell types previously investigated by us, pointed again to a marked contribution of myofibroblast‐like cells to HCC. Intriguingly, secretome analysis of these cells identified several growth factors that may act as tumor promoters and several proteins that have been described as potential biomarkers for HCC including dickkopf‐1, connective tissue growth factor, and CXCL1. Other biomarker candidates presently identified in the secretome of myofibroblasts, including lipocalin‐1 and pappalysin‐1, may be selected for future clinical validation. The identification of myofibroblast‐like cells as important source of tumor‐promoters may open new avenues to therapeutic intervention by targeting these stroma cells in addition to the cancer cells.     

Two-dimensional electrophoresis map of the human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line, HCC-M, and identification of the separated proteins by mass spectrometry

Currently, one of the most popular applications of proteomics is in the area of cancer research. In Africa, Southeast Asia, and China, hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most common cancers, occurring as one of the top five cancers in frequency. This project was initiated with the purpose of separating and identifying the proteins of a human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line, HCC-M. After two-dimensional gel electrophoresis separation, silver staining, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) analyses, tryptic peptide masses were searched for matches in the SWISS-PROT and NCBI nonredundant databases. Approximately 400 spots were analyzed using this approach. Among the proteins identified were housekeeping proteins such as alcohol dehydrogenase, alpha-enolase, asparagine synthetase, isocitrate dehydrogenase, and glucose-6-phosphate 1-dehydrogenase. In addition, we also identified proteins with expression patterns that have been postulated to be related to the process of carcinogenesis. These include 14-3-3 protein, annexin, prohibitin, and thioredoxin peroxidase. This study of the HCC-M proteome, coupled with similar proteome analyses of normal liver tissues, tumors, and other hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines, represents the first step towards the establishment of protein databases, which are valuable resources in studies on the differential protein expressions of human hepatocellular carcinoma.     

A lectin-coupled,multiple reaction monitoring based quantitative analysis of human plasma glycoproteins by mass spectrometry

Aberrant protein glycosylation may be closely associated with cancer pathology. To measure the abundance of protein glycoforms with a specific glycan structure in plasma samples, we developed a lectin-coupled multiple reaction monitoring (MRM)-based mass spectrometric method. It was confirmed that the method could provide reproducible results with precision sufficient to distinguish differences in the abundance of protein glycoforms between individuals. Plasma samples prepared from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients without immuno-depletion of highly abundant plasma proteins were fractionated by use of fucose-specific aleuria aurantia lectin (AAL) immobilized on magnetic beads by use of a biotin–streptavidin conjugate. The lectin-captured fractions were digested by trypsin and profiled by tandem mass spectrometry. From the proteomic profiling data, target glycoproteins were selected and analyzed quantitatively by MRM-based analysis. The reproducibility of MRM-based quantification of the selected target proteins was reliable, with precision (CV; ≤14% for batch-to-batch replicates and ≤19% for replicates over three days) sufficient to distinguish differences in the abundance of AAL-captured glycoforms between individual plasma samples. This lectin-coupled, MRM-based method, measuring only lectin-captured glycoforms of a target protein rather than total target protein, is a tool for monitoring differences between individuals by measuring the abundance of aberrant glycoforms of a target protein related to a disease. This method may be further applied to rapid verification of biomarker candidates involved in aberrant protein glycosylation in human plasma.     

Study of urinary steroid hormone disorders: difference between hepatocellular carcinoma in early stage and cirrhosis

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer in the world. Discovery of novel biomarkers for early HCC from other liver diseases such as cirrhosis is of great clinical benefit. In this study, a novel steroid hormone metabolomic method based on liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry combined with logistic regression analysis was applied to study the steroid hormone disorders and to screen potential urinary steroid hormone biomarkers of early HCC. Thirty-six urinary steroid hormones were detected and quantified in healthy controls, cirrhotic patients, and early HCC patients. Heat map analysis and multivariate statistical analysis suggested severe disorders of steroid hormone network and holistically decreased urinary steroid hormone pattern in cirrhotic and early HCC patients. Logistic regression analysis reveals that a panel of two urinary steroid hormones (epitestosterone and allotetrahydrocortisol) displayed excellent diagnostic capability for distinguishing early HCC from cirrhosis with area under the curve (AUC)?=?0.938 of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. These results help to overcome the disadvantage of lower sensitivity and specificity of alpha-fetoprotein for distinguishing early HCC from cirrhosis. Our work shows that steroid hormone metabolomics is a promising biomarker tool for biomarker study of early HCC.

Comprehensive two-dimensional chromatography and capillary electrophoresis coupled with tandem time-of-flight mass spectrometry for high-speed proteome analysis

A comprehensive two-dimensional capillary liquid chromatography and capillary zone electrophoresis system coupled with tandem matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight-time of flight-mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-TOF-MS) proteomics analyzer is presented. Protein/peptide samples were separated by capillary high-performance liquid chromatography (cHPLC). The effluents from cHPLC (the first dimension) were continuously transferred into capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE, the second dimension) through a novel valve-free hydrodynamic sampling interface. The CZE effluents were mixed with alpha-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (CHCA) matrix sheath flow via CE-MALDI interface, and then directly deposited on the MALDI target at a 3 s time-interval for further MS analysis. The high efficiency of the overall system was demonstrated by analysis of proteins in D20 (human hepatocellular carcinoma model in nude mice with high metastatic potential) liver cancer tissue. More than 300 proteins were identified, which proved the system potential for high-throughput analysis and application in proteomics.     

Progress in Molecular Chaperone Regulation of Heat Shock Protein 90 and Cancer

Heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) is a member of genetically conserved heat shock protein family. As an important molecular chaperone in eukaryotic cells, HSP90 plays a key regulatory role in maintaining cellular protein homeostasis. HSP90 clients encompass a wide range of proteins, thus HSP90 is involved in diverse biological process. With the deeper study, it is found that HSP90 takes an important part in the development and metastasis of cancer, and has become a promising target for the study of anticancer biology. In this review, the progress of HSP90 as molecular chaperone and its relationship with cancer are discussed.     

Identification of potential complementary serum biomarkers to differentiate prostate cancer from benign prostatic hyperplasia using gel- and lectin-based proteomics analyses

Diagnosis of prostate cancer (PCa) is currently much reliant on the invasive and time-consuming transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy of the prostate gland, particularly in light of the inefficient use of prostate-specific antigen as its biomarker. In the present study, we have profiled the sera of patients with PCa and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) using the gel- and lectin-based proteomics methods and demonstrated the significant differential expression of apolipoprotein AII, complement C3 beta chain fragment, inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor heavy chain 4 fragment, transthyretin, alpha-1-antitrypsin, and high molecular weight kininogen (light chain) between the two groups of patients' samples. Our data are suggestive of the potential use of the serum proteins as complementary biomarkers to effectively discriminate PCa from BPH, although this requires further extensive validation on clinically representative populations.