Proteomic Characterization of Plasma Cells from Patients with Multiple Myeloma

Abstract

Introduction: Quantitative proteomics approaches have provided insight into biomarkers of cancer and other diseases with high sensitivity, high specificity, and high analytical precision. Multiple Myeloma is an incurable, fatal blood cancers characterized by clonal expansion of plasma cells in the bone marrow. Current multiple myeloma proteomic research mainly focuses on serum biomarkers, not plasma cells, due to technical difficulties including a requirement for tumor cell isolation from bone marrow aspirates, tumor cell paucity and poor in vitro survival after isolation.Materials and methods: A global proteomic analysis was performed using sorted bone marrow plasma cells from normal donors and multiple myeloma patients and a large-scale quantitative mass spectrometry platform. A selected panel of up- and down-regulated proteins were validated by multiple-reaction-monitoring.Results: We identified a panel of 18 up- and down-regulated potential biomarkers of multiple myeloma, which can be further clinically validated for their potential use as disease-specific biomarkers or signature molecules for monitoring disease progression.Conclusion: The study demonstrates a good example of using proteomics as a tool for the development of clinical biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis, and drug target discovery.