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Proteomic-based biomarker discovery reveals panels of diagnostic biomarkers for early identification of heart failure subtypes.

BACKGROUND: Limited access to echocardiography can delay the diagnosis of suspected heart failure (HF), which in turn postpones the initiation of optimal guideline-directed medical therapy. Although natriuretic peptides like B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) are valuable biomarkers for diagnosing and managing HF, the utility of combining BNP with other blood-based biomarkers to predict subtypes of new-onset HF remains underexplored. OBJECTIVES: This study sought to investigate and evaluate the diagnostic significance of adding blood-based biomarkers to BNP for identifying heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) or reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), with the goal of enhancing diagnostic assays beyond BNP measurements. METHODS: We identified candidate blood protein biomarkers using untargeted proteomics workflows from a cohort of individuals recruited to the STOP-HF trial who were at risk of HF and subsequently developed either HFpEF or HFrEF over time ("HF progressors"; n = 40). Candidate biomarkers were verified in an independent cohort (n = 52) from a community-based rapid access HF diagnostic clinic. The biological processes associated with these proteins were assessed, and the diagnostic values of biomarker panels were evaluated using a machine learning approach. RESULTS: Within HF progressors, we identified 3 proteins associated with HFpEF development: vascular cell adhesion protein 1 (VCAM1), insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2), and inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor heavy chain 3 (ITIH3). Additionally, 4 proteins were linked to HFrEF development: C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 receptor subunit beta (IL6RB), phosphatidylinositol-glycan-specific phospholipase D (PHLD), and noelin (NOE1). These findings were verified in an independent cohort to distinguish HF subtypes from controls. Moreover, a random forest algorithm demonstrated that combining these candidate biomarkers with BNP measurement significantly improved the prediction of HF subtypes. CONCLUSIONS: We identified candidate proteins linked to HFpEF and HFrEF in a longitudinal HF progressor cohort and validated them in a community-based cohort. Adding these proteins to BNP led to a significant improvement in HF subtype prediction. Study results have clinical implications for blood-based screening of HF subtypes using panels of biomarkers, particularly in resource-limited settings.

Humans

Mutual Information-based Prognostic Biomarker Discovery in Cancer Genomics: Conceptual Framework and Representative Applications of MI-POG.

Mutual information (MI)-based approaches have increasingly been applied to cancer genomics; however, their use for genome-wide prognostic biomarker discovery remains relatively underexplored. The present article summarizes the conceptual workflow of Mutual Information-based Prognostic Omics Gene (MI-POG) based on previously published applications in breast cancer, lower-grade glioma, and other cancer datasets. The framework consists of clinical endpoint discretization, genome-wide MI-based screening, candidate ranking, and downstream validation using conventional survival-analysis approaches. Previous MI-POG applications identified solute carrier family 20 member 1 (SLC20A1) as a prognostic biomarker in hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. Elevated SLC20A1 expression was associated with unfavorable survival outcomes and was independently validated in the Molecular Taxonomy of Breast Cancer International Consortium (METABRIC) cohort. Methodological analyses demonstrated how survival endpoints can be integrated into an information-theoretic framework through fixed-time outcome discretization, enabling model-independent assessment of molecular-clinical dependencies. Applications across multiple cancer datasets suggested the potential applicability of the framework across biologically distinct tumor types, although further validation will be required to establish its robustness and generalizability. In conclusion, MI-POG can be formalized as an information-theoretic framework for genome-wide identification of prognostic biomarkers by quantifying molecular-clinical dependencies using mutual information. Representative applications from previously published studies suggest that MI-POG may complement conventional survival-analysis approaches and provide a useful strategy for biomarker discovery, although additional benchmarking and prospective validation will be required.

Humans

Clinical proteomics in inborn errors of metabolism: from biomarker discovery to implementation.

INTRODUCTION: Inborn errors of metabolism (IEMs) are rare, heterogeneous disorders traditionally diagnosed through genetic testing, enzyme assays, and metabolite measurements. However, these tools often do not fully explain phenotypic variability, organ involvement, disease progression, or treatment response. Clinical proteomics provides a complementary functional layer by capturing changes in protein abundance, proteoforms, post-translational modifications (PTM), and biological pathways, offering insights beyond genotype- and metabolite-based approaches. AREAS COVERED: This review examines the role of high-resolution mass spectrometry and computational proteomics in biomarker discovery and clinical decision-making for IEMs. It focuses on their contribution to diagnosis, variant interpretation, patient stratification, and treatment monitoring. Disease-specific applications are discussed, with the strongest evidence in lysosomal storage disorders, mitochondrial diseases, congenital disorders of glycosylation, and selected neurodegenerative or renal metabolic conditions. The literature search was performed in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, covering peer-reviewed articles available up to 2026, with emphasis on methodological advances and translational applications in clinical proteomics for IEMs. EXPERT OPINION: Proteomics will not replace established diagnostic tools, but it can help address clinically actionable questions in selected contexts. Translation into clinical practice will require standardized workflows, multicenter validation, clinically anchored endpoints, and integration with other omics approaches.

Humans

Multimodal deep learning for immunotherapy response prediction and biomarker discovery in non-small cell lung cancer.

OBJECTIVE: Immunotherapy has emerged as a promising treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but accurately predicting which patients will benefit from it remains a major clinical challenge. To address this, we aim to develop a novel multimodal method, DeepAFM, that integrates histopathology, genomic features, and clinical information to predict patient responses to anti-PD-(L)1 immunotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 93 patients with advanced NSCLC were included in this study. Histopathological whole-slide images were processed using a self-supervised VQVAE2 for representation learning. PCA and K-means clustering were then applied for dimensionality reduction and feature grouping. Key regions of interest were visualized through permutation importance evaluation and color-coding techniques. The extracted histopathological features, along with genomic alterations and clinical variables, were integrated into the DeepAFM multimodal prediction model. RESULTS: The DeepAFM achieved a high predictive performance with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.77 (95% confidence interval: 0.69-1.00). Attention-based heatmaps revealed that the model could identify critical pathological patterns, genomic mutations, and clinical indicators associated with patient responses to immunotherapy. DISCUSSION: The integration of multimodal data enabled the model to capture complex interactions among pathology, genomics, and clinical characteristics, enhancing the interpretability and predictive power of immunotherapy response prediction. The visualization techniques facilitated the identification of biologically meaningful features and potential biomarkers. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the DeepAFM in predicting responses to immunotherapy in advanced NSCLC. The approach not only improves prediction accuracy but also provides valuable insights for personalized treatment strategies and biomarker discovery.

Humans

3D Proteomics: Structural, Functional, Chemical and Biomarker Discovery Proteomics With LiP-MS.

Protein structural dynamics drive changes in protein function, making the capture of such dynamics essential for interrogating biological systems. Here we review limited proteolysis coupled to mass spectrometry (LiP-MS), a structural and chemical proteomics method that uses changes in susceptibility to protease cleavage to profile proteome-wide protein structural changes within complex biological samples. In the decade since its development, LiP-MS has become a broadly used structural proteomics method, with peptide-level resolution. It has identified drug targets, delineated altered cellular pathways in response to complex perturbations, revealed structural information on otherwise challenging protein targets, and demonstrated the new concept of structural biomarkers of disease. Because LiP-MS simultaneously probes numerous types of molecular events, such as molecular binding, changes in enzyme activity, chemical modifications, allosteric conformational changes, aggregation, and unfolding, it supports a new proteomics workflow which we term 3D proteomics. This workflow enables the detection of specific functional sites within proteins that are altered upon perturbation, thereby guiding the generation of molecular hypotheses. Further, by globally profiling structural in addition to protein abundance changes, LiP-MS has proven able to greatly increase the information content of functional proteomics screens. In sum, LiP-MS has supported the development of a novel conceptual framework for generating, visualizing, and interpreting structural proteomics data with peptide level resolution, thereby comprehensively probing biological systems. Here we survey the applications of LiP-MS, discuss methodological variants developed by us and others, and describe the use of this new type of omics readout for structural, functional, chemical, and biomarker discovery proteomics.

Proteomics

Bifunctional covalent organic framework for rapid isolation of extracellular vesicles and proteomics-based biomarker discovery.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), serving as crucial carriers of biomarkers for tumor diagnosis and prognostic evaluation, as well as drug delivery vehicles and therapeutic targets, making it a research hotspot. The isolation methods represent a key aspect of EV-associated research. In this work, an alkynyl-functionalized covalent organic framework (COF) was synthesized under acidic conditions at room temperature and further modified by photo-initiated thiol-yne click reaction, yielding a bifunctionalized COF material decorated with distearoyl phosphatidylethanolamine (DSPE) and Ti4+. This bifunctional COF material (COF-DSPE-Ti) can leverage the bifunctional synergistic effect between DSPE and Ti4+ sites, thereby facilitating the efficient isolation of EVs. This synergistic effect enables the efficient isolation of EVs within 3 min. Proteomic analysis reveals that this isolation method significantly outperforms ultracentrifugation, and an effective EV isolation and analysis can be completed using only 10 μL of plasma sample. For clinical liquid biopsy, the integration of the COF-DSPE-Ti method with proteomics lead to the identification of 64 upregulated proteins in plasma samples from colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, among which S100A9 emerged as a potential EV biomarker. In addition, KLK2, KLK3, and FOLH1, which have been established as diagnostic markers for prostate cancer (PCa), are successfully identified in EVs isolated from the urine of PCa patients. These findings demonstrate the reliability of this approach for screening EV-associated biomarkers and provide a novel strategy for the early diagnosis and prognostic assessment of CRC and PCa.

Proteomics

Next-generation brain proteomics: Integrating single-cell, spatial, and multi-omics for clinical biomarker discovery.

The mammalian brain's functional complexity arises from the sophisticated architecture of neurons and glia. This network is essentially defined by its dynamic proteome, which reveals the functional execution underlying neural computation and disease. This review integrates the technological leap in neuroproteomics. It has moved beyond bulk tissue proteome cataloguing to high-sensitivity single-cell and spatial resolution. We detail how next-generation platforms, such as TIMS-PASEF and Orbitrap-Astral, have enabled deeper and faster phenotypic profiling of limited brain samples. However, the proteome coverage remains constrained by dynamic range, sample loss, ionisation bias and incomplete detection of low-abundance regulatory proteins. We further examine how such studies have revealed the proteomic remodelling that drives lineage specification and synaptic plasticity by linking temporal protein expression waves to biological function. Crucially, we delineate the clinical translational trajectory, illustrating how aberrant signatures are verified in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and validated in plasma to support precision medicine. Finally, we argue for the necessity of "fused" multi-omics integration and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to decode the non-linear molecular logic of brain pathology.

Humans

Translational Gap in Biomarker Discovery: Tumor Surface Markers Rarely Mirror Circulating Levels.

BACKGROUND: Tumor-associated cell surface proteins are frequently proposed as circulating biomarkers for colorectal cancer (CRC) based on their high tumor expression. However, many candidates identified through tissue-based analyses fail to translate into clinically useful biomarkers. We investigated the translational gap between tissue-level expression and circulating detectability in CRC, focusing on molecular subtypes defined by caudal-type homeobox 2 (CDX2) expression. METHODS: Transcriptomic data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were analyzed to identify cell surface markers differentially expressed between CDX2-Low and CDX2-High CRCs. A clinical cohort of right-sided CRC patients was evaluated using paired tumor tissue and preoperative plasma samples. CDX2 expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry, and circulating concentrations of selected cell surface proteins were quantified using a multiplex ELISA platform. RESULTS: Several tumor-associated cell surface markers exhibited marked CDX2-dependent differences in tissue expression. However, for most markers, circulating plasma levels did not mirror tissue-level patterns. CEACAM1 was the sole marker demonstrating concordant CDX2-dependent differences in both tumor tissue and plasma, with significantly lower levels in CDX2-Low CRCs. In contrast, CEACAM5 showed a dissociation between tissue expression and circulating levels, despite analytical validation against serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrate that tumor overexpression of cell surface markers does not necessarily translate into detectable circulating biomarkers. This translational disconnect underscores limitations of biomarker selection strategies based solely on tissue expression and highlights the importance of integrating systemic biology into biomarker development. While some tumor-associated proteins may lack utility as circulating biomarkers, they may still represent viable therapeutic targets in CRC.

CDX2

ToxAssay: a hierarchical model-driven tool for advanced toxicogenomics biomarker discovery.

MOTIVATION: Understanding the genetic basis of drug-induced toxicity is crucial for drug development. In-silico analysis of toxicogenomics datasets facilitates early detection of toxicity biomarkers. However, existing tools struggle with the complex interdependencies among hierarchically structured variables, leading to inaccurate biomarker identification. To address this limitation, we developed a Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) and implemented it in the R package ToxAssay, offering extensive functionality for comprehensive toxicity assessment. RESULTS: ToxAssay outperforms existing methods by improving biomarker detection and computational efficiency. Applied to glutathione depletion-induced toxicity, it prioritized 71 key genes and identified 26 core genes with high discriminative accuracy (AUC = 0.97) and strong cross-correlation (Pearson's r = 0.88) with external datasets. Additionally, our advance outcome pathway (AOP) analysis algorithm uncovered disease outcomes linked to glutathione depletion. These findings provide precise insights into the molecular mechanisms driving drug-induced toxicity. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: ToxAssay is available as an open-source R package at https://github.com/Fun-Gene/toxassay.

Biomarkers

Intramuscular patient-derived xenografts achieve high engraftment rates in gastric cancer: implications for pharmacodynamic testing and genomic biomarker discovery.

BACKGROUND: Gastric cancer (GC) exhibits marked inter-patient heterogeneity, limiting empirical chemotherapy efficacy. Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models preserve the molecular features of parental tumors and can serve as pharmacodynamic surrogates, but conventional subcutaneous PDX suffers from low engraftment rates. This study evaluated an optimized intramuscular PDX platform for individualized drug testing in GC and applied whole exome sequencing (WES) for biomarker identification (Clinical trial registry: ChiCTR-OOC-17012731). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ninety-eight treatment-naive GC patients were enrolled between April 2018 and December 2020. Fresh tumor tissues were engrafted into NCG mice by intramuscular transplantation. Drug efficacy was evaluated using tumor cell necrosis rate and Ki-67 expression. WES was performed on 32 engrafted tumorgrafts to characterize driver mutations in fast- and slow-growing subgroups. RESULTS: An engraftment rate of 71.7% (43/60) was achieved, substantially exceeding rates reported in prior studies. Clinical characteristics were independent of engraftment success and outgrowth time (all p > 0.05). Fast- and slow-growing tumorgrafts diverged in frequently altered genes: KMT2C, APOB, CDK12 and MSH2 predominated in fast-growing grafts, whereas TP53, CHD3 and TET2 were enriched in slow-growing grafts. Slow-growing tumorgrafts correlated with longer progression-free survival (p = 0.02). PDX-guided treatment was associated with improved prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: Intramuscular transplantation into NCG mice yields high engraftment rates for GC PDX. PDX-guided chemotherapy selection is associated with favorable outcomes. Driver mutation divergence between fast- and slow-growing tumorgrafts provides candidate prognostic biomarkers.

Animals

Proteomics as a theranostic compass in BCR::ABL1-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms: Integrating biomarker discovery with therapeutic stratification.

Classic BCR::ABL1-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs)-polycythaemia vera, essential thrombocythaemia, and primary myelofibrosis-are clonal haematopoietic stem cell disorders with marked heterogeneity in clinical phenotype, disease trajectory, and therapeutic response. Genomic stratification by driver and cooperating mutations only partially accounts for this variability, leaving gaps in predicting thrombotic risk, fibrotic progression, leukaemic transformation, and treatment benefit. Proteomics bridges this gap by providing function-proximal readouts of protein abundance, post-translational modifications, pathway activity, and intercellular signalling that genomics and transcriptomics cannot capture, positioning it as a theranostic platform in which the same molecular readouts simultaneously inform diagnostic stratification and therapeutic decision-making. We propose a five-stage translational framework spanning from discovery-scale mass spectrometry and affinity-based plasma profiling to targeted validation, multicentre standardisation, and machine learning-integrated clinical panels. Proteomic evidence is synthesised across the following four disease axes: clonal fitness in haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells; bone marrow microenvironmental remodelling and fibrosis; chronic inflammation and thrombosis; and leukaemic transformation. We further describe how phosphoproteomics reveals resistance mechanisms to JAK inhibitors, including AXL-MAPK bypass and PP2A-autophagy-mediated tolerance, and how protein-level biomarkers (BCL2-BCL-XL, RAS-ERK, CAMK2G, and ROCK1/2) can guide individualised therapeutic selection. Affinity-based platforms (Olink PEA and SomaScan) and spatially resolved technologies (CODEX and single-cell proteomics) complement discovery proteomics. At present, however, this evidence base is constrained by small and heterogeneous cohorts, limited cross-platform reproducibility, and a scarcity of independent external validation for candidate protein panels. Realising this vision will require multicentre standardisation, analytically validated panel assays, and prospective clinical studies that translate molecular findings into decision-grade tools for patients with MPNs.

Humans

Genomic and integrative based progression biomarker discovery in adult sepsis: toward clinical stratification and precision medicine.

Sepsis is a life-threatening syndrome characterized by a heterogeneous host response to infection that remains a major cause of mortality worldwide. Current clinical scoring systems capture organ dysfunction but fail to reflect the underlying biological diversity, limiting their utility for patient stratification and targeted therapy. This review provides a comprehensive overview of molecular biomarker approaches used to predict sepsis course and prognosis in adult patients, covering genetic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and integrative strategies up to May 2026. Here, we summarize findings from genetic association studies, along with analyses based on polygenic risk scores to aggregate genetic effects, Mendelian randomization, and rare-variant sequencing approaches. We also review transcriptomic and proteomic strategies for endotyping, and diagnostic and prognostic discrimination. Lastly, we discuss how multi-omics integration is emerging as a promising framework to assist in distinguishing causal therapeutic targets from non-causal biomarkers. We also address the challenges that still constrain clinical translation towards precision medicine.

Biomarker

IGCN: integrative graph convolution networks for patient level insights and biomarker discovery in multi-omics integration.

MOTIVATION: Developing computational tools for integrative analysis across multiple types of omics data has been of immense importance in cancer molecular biology and precision medicine research. While recent advancements have yielded integrative prediction solutions for multi-omics data, these methods lack a comprehensive and cohesive understanding of the rationale behind their specific predictions. To shed light on personalized medicine and unravel previously unknown characteristics within integrative analysis of multi-omics data, we introduce a novel integrative neural network approach for cancer molecular subtype and biomedical classification applications, named Integrative Graph Convolutional Networks (IGCN). RESULTS: To demonstrate the superiority of IGCN, we compare its performance with other state-of-the-art approaches across different cancer subtype and biomedical classification tasks. Our experimental results show that our proposed model outperforms the state-of-the-art and baseline methods. IGCN identifies which types of omics data receive more emphasis for each patient when predicting a specific class. Additionally, IGCN has the capability to pinpoint significant biomarkers from a range of omics data types. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The source code is available at https://github.com/bozdaglab/IGCN.

Humans

In vitro protocol demonstrating five functional steps of trained immunity in mice: Implications on biomarker discovery and translational research.

We developed an in vitro methodology to study trained immunity using murine bone-marrow-derived macrophages stimulated with β-glucan and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Longitudinal analysis of interleukin (IL)-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) production demonstrates that trained macrophages secrete higher cytokine levels following primary stimulation with β-glucan compared to unstimulated macrophages (step 1). After a resting period, trained macrophages return to basal levels of cytokine production (step 2) but rapidly produce enhanced levels of IL-6 and TNF after secondary stimulation with LPS, compared to macrophages individually stimulated with either β-glucan (step 3) or LPS (step 4) alone. The combined cytokine production of macrophages after single stimulation with β-glucan (stimulus 1) and LPS (stimulus 2) is significantly lower than the cytokine levels produced by trained macrophages sequentially stimulated with both β-glucan and LPS (stimulus 1 + 2) (step 5). These results experimentally reproduce the distinctive functional stages that macrophages undergo during the training process.

Animals

Machine learning-enabled multi-omics discovery of prognostic biomarkers and signaling targets in pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains difficult to subtype using single omics layers. We conducted an exploratory investigation integrating reverse-phase protein array (RPPA) and DNA methylation data from the cancer genome atlas (TCGA)- pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) to assess the feasibility of multi-omics subtyping, alongside a supervised machine learning analysis of a small gene expression omnibus (GEO) transcriptomic cohort (n = 26) to identify candidate diagnostic genes. RPPA-based K-means clustering suggested a weak, possible two-subtype structure (silhouette ≈ 0.16) that remained unassociated with overall survival (log-rank p = 0.113) and lacked independent prognostic value. An independently performed similarity network fusion (SNF) analysis integrating RPPA and methylation data showed low concordance with RPPA-derived subtypes (Adjusted Rand Index (ARI) = 0.014), indicating limited convergence between molecular modalities. Supervised machine learning analysis of the GEO cohort using a fully nested leave-one-out cross-validation pipeline achieved a mean (area under the curve) AUC of 0.896 across four classifiers and identified four-fold-stable candidate genes (ESCO2, COL17A1, BCL2L14, and SOWAHB). However, this gene panel demonstrated limited external validity across two independent PDAC cohorts (log-rank p = 0.438 for both GSE62452 and GSE28735), indicating limited generalizability despite robust internal performance. Collectively, these findings provide limited evidence for a robust, prognostically significant multi-omics subtype or a validated diagnostic gene signature; instead, this study serves as a hypothesis-generating resource and highlights the importance of rigorous cross-validation and independent external validation in small-sample transcriptomic biomarker discovery.

Humans

A Rapid Poly(ethylene glycol)-Assisted Magnetic Isolation Approach for High-Throughput Extracellular Vesicle Isolation and Subsequent Biomarker Analysis.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are crucial mediators of intercellular communication and have the potential to serve as biomarkers for disease diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring. However, most EV isolation methods often require large sample volumes and specialized instruments or involve trade-offs between purity, yield, cost, and scalability. We developed MagPEG, a workflow that combines poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-mediated EV aggregation with magnetic beads to provide a simple, reproducible alternative to ultracentrifugation, size-exclusion chromatography, and commercial precipitation kits. Our optimization experiments clarified the PEG concentration, ionic strength, and bead surface chemistry that collectively influence EV aggregation, capture efficiency, and contaminant coprecipitation, allowing us to define conditions that improve purity while maintaining high recovery. Compared with commonly used methods, MagPEG produced EVs with comparable size distribution, EV markers, and proteomic profiles while relying only on standard laboratory supplies. A key feature of the platform is that EVs and EV-associated DNA, RNA, and proteins can be sequentially extracted from the same bead-bound material, reducing sample loss and hands-on time and enabling multiomic analysis for limited clinical or small animal samples. MagPEG is compatible with downstream applications including proteomics, bead-based assays, and miRNA quantification. When applied to human serum, the method supported high-throughput EV proteomic profiling and enabled the identification of Alzheimer's disease-associated protein signatures, illustrating its utility for biomarker discovery. Overall, our results establish MagPEG as a powerful, rapid, scalable, and high-throughput solution for translational applications in biomarker discovery.

Polyethylene Glycols

Proteomics in environmental pollution research: Advances, challenges, and future directions.

Environmental proteomics has emerged as a powerful approach for elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying pollutant-induced biological effects. Although this field has developed rapidly, the systematic review of recent proteomics applications in environmental pollution research remains limited. This review explored the emerging roles of toxicoproteomics in biomarker discovery and mechanistic elucidation, as well as ecotoxicoproteomics in ecological risk assessment and bioremediation strategies. Here, we review the field, highlighting recent trends such as the integration of proteomics with genomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics to provide a comprehensive view of biological responses to environmental stressors. We further discuss the growing application of artificial intelligence in improving proteomics data interpretation and accelerating biomarker discovery. In addition, recent technological advances in environmental proteomics are highlighted, including next-generation tissue microarray proteomics, nanoscale proteomics, single-cell proteomics, and spatial proteomics. Despite its potential, proteomics faces challenges, such as high operational costs, computational complexity in analysis, and technical limitations in low-abundance protein detection. We propose that the convergence of proteomics with artificial intelligence and multi-omics approaches offers promising solutions to these challenges, enhancing the practical application of proteomics in environmental monitoring and risk assessment.

Proteomics

Mass spectrometry-based top-down proteomics for proteoform profiling of protein coronas.

The protein corona is a layer of biomolecules-primarily proteins-that adsorbs to nanoparticle (NP) surfaces in biological fluids. If the purpose of the NP is therapeutic, this can have a profound effect on its biological activity and function in vivo. Protein corona formation can also be exploited for diagnostic purposes and to differentially enrich proteins for biomarker discovery. For all of these applications, it is useful to determine which proteins, and which specific proteoforms, bind to different types of NP. The traditional mass spectrometry (MS)-based bottom-up proteomics does not accurately identify specific proteoforms within the protein corona. This limitation impedes the nanomedicine field's ability to precisely predict the biological fate and pharmacokinetics of nanomedicines and their effectiveness in early-stage biomarker discovery and disease detection because many different proteoforms of the same gene could exist in the corona, and they have divergent biological functions. Here, we describe how to use capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE)-MS-based top-down proteomics to characterize the proteoform landscape of the protein corona. Our procedures detail the recovery of intact proteoforms from NP surfaces by using detergent-assisted proteoform elution and the measurement of these proteoforms by using CZE-tandem MS (MS/MS) and CZE-high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS)-MS/MS. The entire workflow is completed within 3-4 d. Using this protocol, hundreds of proteoforms from the protein corona of polystyrene NPs can be identified. Distinct protein corona proteoform profiles were observed from NPs with different physicochemical properties. The addition of FAIMS is beneficial for more in-depth proteoform characterization.

Proteomics