Commentary on: Mobley AJ, Lam YW, Lau KM, Pais VM, Lesperance JO, Steadman B, et al. Monitoring the serological Proteome Colon, the latest modality in prostate cancer detection. J Urol 2004; 172: 331-7.

This manuscript examines the utility, utilizing the Ciphergen Protein Biosystem II, to develop a fingerprint for the diagnosis of prostate cancer. The investigators compared samples from control individuals as well as those with prostate cancer. In doing so, they utilize several chip platforms on which to examine the resulting

Optimization for Purification and Characterization of Recombinant Hirudin Ⅲ from E. coli

Aim To optimize purification conditions of recombinant hirudin 3 in thefermentation broth and characterize the product. Methods Reambinant hirudin 3 was isolated andpurified from the fermentation broth by three column chromatography steps with macroporous resin,DEAE cellulose DES2 and preparative RP-HPLC, respectively, and the optimal conditions were obtained.Purity of the product was determined by SDS-PAGE and analytical RP-HPLC. The molecular weight wasdetermined by mass spec-trometry. The structure of the product was analyzed by peptide map.ResultsThe product with purity of 95.4786% was obtained after three purification steps in the optimumconditions with a total yield of 39%. The molecular weight of the product was 6 913.32 ± 6.55 Da,coincident to the theoretical molecular weight of r-hirudin 3. The structure of the product wascoincident to r-hirudin 3 either. Conclusion The optimized purification steps can be successfullyemployed for purification of r-hirudin 3 from E. coli using batch-type approaches. The productobtained with high purity was confirmed to be r-hirudin 3.

Comparing different domains of analysis for the characterisation of N-glycans on monoclonal antibodies

With the size of the biopharmaceutical market exponentially increasing,there is an aligned growth in the importance of data-rich analyses,not only to assess drug product safety but also to assist drug development driven by the deeper understanding of structure/function relationships.In monoclonal antibodies,many functions are regulated by N-glycans present in the constant region of the heavy chains and their mechanisms of action are not completely known.The importance of their function focuses analytical research efforts on the development of robust,accurate and fast methods to support drug development and quality control.Released N-glycan analysis is considered as the gold standard for glycosylation characterisation;however,it is not the only method for quantitative analysis of glycoform heterogeneity.In this study,ten different analytical workflows for N-glycan analysis were compared using four monoclonal antibodies.While observing good comparability between the quantitative results generated,it was possible to appreciate the advantages and disadvantages of each technique and to summarise all the observations to guide the choice of the most appropriate analytical workflow according to application and the desired depth of data generated.

Proteomics analysis of coronary atherosclerotic heart disease with different Traditional Chinese Medicine syndrome types before and after percutaneous coronary intervention

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the underlying protein molecular mechanisms of "Qi stagnation and blood stasis syndrome"(QS) and "Qi deficiency and blood stasis syndrome"(QD), as two subtypes of coronary artery disease(CAD) in Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM),following percutaneous coronary intervention(PCI).METHODS: In this study, a total of 227 CAD patients with QS and 211 CAD patients with QD were enrolled;all participants underwent PCI. Label-free quantification proteomics were employed to analyze the changes in serum in two subtypes of CAD patients before and 6 months after PCI, aiming to elucidate the intervention mechanism of PCI in treating CAD characterized by two different TCM syndromes.RESULTS: Biochemical analysis revealed significant changes in tumor necrosis factor-α, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, blood stasis clinical symptoms observation, and Gensini levels in both patient groups post-PCI;Proteomic analysis identified 79 and 95 differentially expressed proteins in the QS and QD patient groups, respectively, compared to their control groups.complement C8 alpha chain, complement factor H,apolipoprotein H, apolipoprotein B, plasminogen,carbonic anhydrase 2, and complement factor Ⅰ were altered in both comparison groups. Furthermore,enrichment analysis demonstrated that cell adhesion and connectivity-related processes underwent changes in QS patients post-PCI, whereas lipid metabolism-related pathways, including the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor signaling pathway and extracellular matrix receptor interaction, underwent changes in the QD group.The protein-protein interaction network analysis further enriched 52 node proteins, including apolipoprotein B,lipoprotein(a), complement C5, apolipoprotein A4,complement C8 alpha chain, complement C8 beta chain,complement C8 gamma chain, apolipoprotein H,apolipoprotein A-Ⅱ, albumin, complement C4-B,apolipoprotein C3, among others. The functional network of these proteins is posited to contribute to the pathophysiology of CAD characterized by TCM syndromes.CONCLUSION: The current quantitative proteomic study has preliminarily identified biomarkers of CAD in different TCM subtypes treated with PCI, potentially laying the groundwork for understanding the protein profiles associated with the treatment of various TCM subtypes of CAD.