Plasma proteome profiling to assess human health and disease

Proteins in the circulatory system mirror an individual´s physiology. They are easy to obtain and consequently, plasma and serum are the predominant matrices for diagnostic analyses in daily clinical practice. Protein levels are generally determined using single protein immuno-assays. Mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics of this body fluid is challenging due to the high dynamic range of protein abundances. Here we introduce a rapid and robust single-run proteomic workflow that enables the quantitative analysis of hundreds of plasma proteomes from single finger pricks with 20 min gradients. The apolipoprotein family, inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein, gender-related proteins and more than 40 FDA approved biomarkers are reproducibly quantified (CV<20% with label-free quantification). Furthermore, we functionally interpret a 1000 protein, quantitative plasma proteome obtained by simple peptide pre-fractionation. ‘Plasma proteome profiling’ delivers an informative portrait of a person’s health state and we envision its large-scale use in biomedicine.