An Overview of Proteomics on Sepsis

Abstract

Over the last years, proteomics has provided us a lot of information about the spectrum of all the proteins that are expressed by an organism in pathological and non-pathological processes. The advantage of studying the proteome over other omics (genomics, epigenetics, transcriptomics and metabolomics) is that proteins reflect the final effectors in all the complex network of replication, transcription and translation. Sepsis is a systemic inflammatory response caused by infection and that could produce multiple organ dysfunctions. The study of the secreted proteins would improve the knowledge of molecular mechanisms and pathways implicated in the septic process and consequently, data will allow us to find new therapeutic targets. The objective of this review is to summarize the proteomics updates of preclinical and clinical studies of sepsis in fields like pathophysiology, treatment, diagnosis or prognosis, providing new perspectives and directions of sepsis. Proteomics is a useful technique for the understanding of the pathophysiology of sepsis infection, the identification of new molecules for an early diagnosis and the prognosis, and the follow-up of treatment progress. The validation of new biomarkers needs a large cohort of patients and the use of other additional methods. Nevertheless, together with other techniques, proteomics has added important elements to the understanding of sepsis and other diseases. Despite current limitations, proteomic techniques improvement with bioinformatics tools might help results interpretation. Besides, the bettering in sensitivity and sensibility may facilitate further sepsis studies with these techniques.