Diagnostic Advances
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Pathophysiol. Feb 15, 2016; 7(1): 27-37
Published online Feb 15, 2016. doi: 10.4291/wjgp.v7.i1.27
Current application of proteomics in biomarker discovery for inflammatory bowel disease
Patrick PY Chan, Valerie C Wasinger, Rupert W Leong
Patrick PY Chan, Valerie C Wasinger, Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Facility, Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre, the University of NSW Australia, Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia
Rupert W Leong, Gastroenterology and Liver Services, Concord Repatriation General Hospital, Concord, NSW 2137, Australia
Author contributions: Chan PPY wrote the paper; Wasinger VC and Leong RW reviewed and edited the draft for submission.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest. No financial support.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Rupert W Leong, MD, MBBS, Gastroenterology and Liver Services, Concord Repatriation General Hospital, Hospital Road, Concord, NSW 2137, Australia. rupert.leong@sswahs.nsw.gov.au
Telephone: +61-2-97676111 Fax: +61-2-97676767
Received: August 31, 2015
Peer-review started: September 2, 2015
First decision: September 29, 2015
Revised: November 13, 2015
Accepted: December 29, 2015
Article in press: January 4, 2016
Published online: February 15, 2016
Abstract

Recently, the field of proteomics has rapidly expanded in its application towards clinical research with objectives ranging from elucidating disease pathogenesis to discovering clinical biomarkers. As proteins govern and/or reflect underlying cellular processes, the study of proteomics provides an attractive avenue for research as it allows for the rapid identification of protein profiles in a biological sample. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) encompasses several heterogeneous and chronic conditions of the gastrointestinal tract. Proteomic technology provides a powerful means of addressing major challenges in IBD today, especially for identifying biomarkers to improve its diagnosis and management. This review will examine the current state of IBD proteomics research and its use in biomarker research. Furthermore, we also discuss the challenges of translating proteomic research into clinically relevant tools. The potential application of this growing field is enormous and is likely to provide significant insights towards improving our future understanding and management of IBD.

Keywords: Proteomics, Inflammatory bowel disease, Biomarkers, Molecular diagnostic techniques, Mass spectrometry

Core tip: Proteomic methods provide a powerful tool that can be applied to the discovery of disease markers, allowing for rapid identification and quantification of proteins. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) currently faces many challenges, ranging from the elucidation of its pathophysiology to the accurate diagnosis in patients. Proteomics has been widely employed in many disease in the search of biomarkers, particularly cancer proteins. It has great potential to improve both our understanding and clinical management of IBD. Our review summarises the current application of proteomics to IBD and discusses challenges relating to translation into clinical practice.