As a core technology in modern biomedical research, protein qualitative and quantitative analysis, supported by the rapid development of mass spectrometry technology, has achieved precise identification and quantification of proteins. This technology plays a pivotal role in revealing the mysteries of life phenomena, exploring disease mechanisms, and discovering biomarkers. Currently, it is widely used in various fields:
Biological Mechanism Exploration: Protein qualitative analysis accurately identifies the presence and identity of specific proteins in samples, thereby revealing the protein composition in cells, tissues, or organs, deepening the understanding of molecular bases in life processes, such as signal transduction mechanisms, metabolic regulation networks, and cell cycle regulation.
Disease Diagnosis and Treatment: Abnormal protein expression levels are often associated with the occurrence and development of various diseases. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis of proteins in cerebrospinal fluid, blood, or other body fluids, scientists can discover and validate potential biomarkers for early disease diagnosis, prognosis assessment, and therapeutic monitoring.
Functional Genomics Research: Combined with gene expression data, protein quantitative analysis helps establish the connection between gene expression and protein abundance, thereby validating gene function and gaining a deeper understanding of gene expression regulatory networks.
Personalized Medicine and Precision Therapy: Based on qualitative and quantitative information from proteomics, precise analysis of individual differences in patients provides a basis for developing personalized treatment plans.
With the development and application of high-throughput sequencing technology and mass spectrometry, the accuracy and coverage of differential protein analysis have been significantly improved. This enables researchers to deeply explore and meticulously evaluate potential drug targets in disease progression based on massive data.
Targeted proteomics focuses on in-depth research of predefined target proteins, while untargeted proteomics aims to comprehensively detect all proteins in samples, aiming to discover unknown protein types and potential biomarkers, thus also known as discovery proteomics. Untargeted proteomics developed earlier than targeted proteomics and is particularly suitable for the initial stage of biomarker exploration.
Peptide absolute quantification analysis is an important technical means for determining changes in protein expression levels in proteomics. Compared to traditional immunoblotting techniques, mass spectrometry-based quantitative analysis offers higher specificity, especially suitable for quantitative analysis of protein isoforms. This technology can simultaneously detect and analyze multiple proteins, combined with isotope-labeled peptides, achieving accurate measurement of protein abundance.