High-throughput proteomics of breast carcinoma cells: a focus on FTICR-MS

Abstract

Discovery of better biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and therapy-response prediction is the most critical task of a scientific quest aimed at developing novel, tailormade therapies for patients with cancer. Consequently, a proteome-wide analysis, in addition to genomic studies, is an absolute requirement for a complete functional understanding of tumor biology. Ultra-sensitive, high-performance Fourier-transform ion-cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometry (MS) currently holds an important role in fulfilling the demands of biomarker discovery. In this review, we describe the applicability of FTICR-MS for breast cancer proteomics, particularly for the analysis of complex protein mixtures obtained from a limited number of cells typically available from clinical specimens.

Keywords::

• accurate mass and time tag
• biomarker discovery
• breast cancer
• Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance
• high throughput
• laser-capture microdissection
• MALDI
• nanoscale liquid chromatography
• protein array

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Part of this research was performed at the Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory, a US Department of Energy (DOE) national scientific user facility located on the campus of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington. During this period, Arzu Umar was financially supported through a personal fellowship from the Dutch Cancer Society. Malgorzata Jaremko was supported through a grant from the European Science Foundation. Theo Luider was supported by the Netherlands Proteomics Center.

We thank the US DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research, and the National Institutes of Health, through the National Center for Research Resources (RR018522) for support of portions of the reviewed research.

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.