THE 28 June online edition of Nature Biotechnology has published a study on a method to detect and quantify multiple protein biomarkers in blood samples.
According to the study, the method can be used to enhance large-scale measurement of low abundance proteins, and can also be widely reproduced in different laboratories using varied equipment.
The work was led by five research institutes, including the Broad Institute, as part of the National Cancer Institute’s Clinical Proteomic Technology Assessment for Cancer (CPTAC).
The new proteomic method could help with the identification and testing of hundreds or thousands of protein biomarkers which indicate oncoming diseases.
According to one of the authors of the study, this is a first step in the long march to move protein biomarkers from the laboratory into the clinic. The study’s reagents, protocols and data are available to any researcher who wants to use them.
CPTAC researchers independently measured the relative levels of these proteins using a method that can simultaneously detect multiple proteins, known as multiple reaction monitoring coupled with stable isotope dilution mass spectrometry or SID-MRM-MS, and then shared their results.
The work was carried out in different laboratories by different researchers, often using different types of instruments, which introduced yet another source of variability.
The researchers also shared and analysed their results, ultimately making the data and analytical techniques available to the proteomics community.
The study demonstrated that the SID-MRM-MS approach yields consistent results, within a single laboratory as well as across multiple sites. The testing method was also found to be highly sensitive, allowing detection of proteins that are present in relatively low concentrations.
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