An overview of nanotechnology-based functional proteomics for cancer and cell cycle progression.

Nanogenomics and nanoproteomics allow the study and comparison of the huge number of genes and proteins involved in the cell cycle progression of human T lymphocytes and in its transformation in lymphoma. Nanogenomics has, however, many pitfalls that only functional proteomics, called nucleic acid programmable protein array (NAPPA), is capable of overcoming by probing with unique sensitivity native in situ protein-protein interactions. This allows identification of the key proteins involved in the control of cancer and proliferation in the light of recent label-free NAPPA approaches based on nanotechnologies. Bioinformatics in combination with label free NAPPA, anodic porous alumina (APA) and DNA analyser (DNASER) microarrays appear capable of providing the long-range framework for the basic molecular understanding of cancer and cell cycle progression.