Plasma biomarker discovery using 3D protein profiling coupled with label-free quantitation.

In-depth quantitative profiling of human plasma samples for biomarker discovery remains quite challenging. One promising alternative to chemical derivatization with stable isotope labels for quantitative comparisons is direct, label-free, quantitative comparison of raw LC-MS data. But, in order to achieve high-sensitivity detection of low-abundance proteins, plasma proteins must be extensively pre-fractionated, and results from LC-MS runs of all fractions must be integrated efficiently in order to avoid misidentification of variations in fractionation from sample to sample as "apparent" biomarkers. This protocol describes a powerful 3D protein profiling method for comprehensive analysis of human serum or plasma proteomes, which combines abundant protein depletion and high-sensitivity GeLC-MS/MS with label-free quantitation of candidate biomarkers.