Proteomics studies utilizing human plasma have to date focused largely on specific disease settings, on detecting the highest number of proteins or on the effect of certain drugs on changes in plasma protein expression. In addition, the majority of such studies have focused on adults, with limited number of studies and hence limited knowledge of the plasma proteome in infants and children.
HUPO Plasma Proteome Project recognizes the importance of analyzing and understanding age related differences in the plasma proteome by identifying this as one of their scientific aims and research priorities. In addition, the recently established Paediatric Proteomics (PediOme) initiative, a part of HUPO, aims to advance the use of proteomics techniques to solve major issues in paediatric medicine through characterization of the paediatric proteome across a wide-variety of tissues and biological samples.
Developmental Proteomics is a new concept that focuses on age specific differences in the human proteome. This new biology will be described through the use of SWATH-MS data independent acquisition as a new technology that is particularly suitable for developmental proteomics studies. Specifically, SWATH-MS allows confident identification of peptides over a dynamic range of 4 orders of magnitude, making it a useful tool for the analysis of biological specimens such as plasma. The use of SWATH-MS in neonatal and paediatric plasma samples to determine variability and subsequent comparison to adult plasma remains an exciting research opportunity, and one that has, to date, not been explored.
This presentation will outline the results of a recent study, which utilised SWATH-MS to profile the expression of plasma proteins associated with healthy human development.