Recent advances in biomarker discovery in solid organ transplant by proteomics

Abstract

The identification and clinical use of more sensitive and specific biomarkers in the field of solid organ transplantation is an urgent need in medicine. Solid organ transplantation has seen improvements in the short-term survival of transplanted organs due to recent advancements in immunosuppressive therapy. However, the currently available methods of allograft monitoring are not optimal. Recent advancements in assaying methods for biomolecules such as genes, mRNA and proteins have helped to identify surrogate biomarkers that can be used to monitor the transplanted organ. These high-throughput ‘omic’ methods can help researchers to significantly speed up the identification and the validation steps, which are crucial factors for biomarker discovery efforts. Still, the progress towards identifying more sensitive and specific biomarkers remains a great deal slower than expected. In this article, we have evaluated the current status of biomarker discovery using proteomics tools in different solid organ transplants in recent years. This article summarizes recent reports and current status, along with the hurdles in efficient biomarker discovery of protein biomarkers using proteomics approaches. Finally, we will touch upon personalized medicine as a future direction for better management of transplanted organs, and provide what we think could be a recipe for success in this field.

Keywords::

• acute rejection
• biomarker
• biomarker discovery
• noninvasive biomarkers
• organ transplantation
• peptidomics
• proteomics
• urine

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Matthew Vitalone and Marianne Delville for their help during manuscript preparation.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors acknowledge funding support from the NIH (grant numbers 5R21AI075256-02 and 5R01DK083447-02) to MM Sarwal, the Transplant and Tissue Engineering Center of Excellence Award to MM Sarwal and TK Sigdel, and CHRP fellowship to TK Sigdel. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.