Nanoproteomics enables proteoform-resolved analysis of low-abundance proteins in human serum

Nat Commun. 2020 Aug 6;11(1):3903. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-17643-1.

Abstract

Top-down mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics provides a comprehensive analysis of proteoforms to achieve a proteome-wide understanding of protein functions. However, the MS detection of low-abundance proteins from blood remains an unsolved challenge due to the extraordinary dynamic range of the blood proteome. Here, we develop an integrated nanoproteomics method coupling peptide-functionalized superparamagnetic nanoparticles (NPs) with top-down MS for the enrichment and comprehensive analysis of cardiac troponin I (cTnI), a gold-standard cardiac biomarker, directly from serum. These NPs enable the sensitive enrichment of cTnI (<1 ng/mL) with high specificity and reproducibility, while simultaneously depleting highly abundant proteins such as human serum albumin (>1010 more abundant than cTnI). We demonstrate that top-down nanoproteomics can provide high-resolution proteoform-resolved molecular fingerprints of diverse cTnI proteoforms to establish proteoform-pathophysiology relationships. This scalable and reproducible antibody-free strategy can generally enable the proteoform-resolved analysis of low-abundance proteins directly from serum to reveal previously unachievable molecular details.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Biomarkers / blood
  • Blood Chemical Analysis / methods*
  • Blood Proteins / analysis*
  • Humans
  • Magnetite Nanoparticles / chemistry
  • Magnetite Nanoparticles / ultrastructure
  • Mass Spectrometry / methods*
  • Nanotechnology
  • Protein Processing, Post-Translational
  • Proteome / analysis
  • Proteomics / methods*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Serum Albumin, Human / analysis
  • Troponin I / blood*

Substances

  • Biomarkers
  • Blood Proteins
  • Magnetite Nanoparticles
  • Proteome
  • TNNI3 protein, human
  • Troponin I
  • Serum Albumin, Human