The Russian part of the human proteome project: First results and prospects

Abstract

The article summarizes the achievements of the pilot phase (2010-2014) of the Russian part of the international project "Human Proteome" and identifies the directions for further work on the study of the human chromosome 18 proteome in the framework of the project main phase (2015-2022). The pilot phase of the project was focused on the detection of at least one protein for each chromosome 18 protein-coding gene in three types of the biological material. The application of mass spectrometric detection of proteins by the methods of multiple reactions monitoring (MRM) and gene-centric approach made it possible to detect 95% of master forms of proteins, for 60% of which the quantitative assessment of the protein content was obtained in at least one type of the biological material. The task of the main phase of the project is to measure the proteome size of healthy individuals, taking into account the modified protein forms, providing for both the bioinformatics prediction of the quantity of proteins types and the selective experimental measurement of single proteoforms. Since the ranges of protein concentrations corresponding to the normal physiological state have not been identified, the work of the main phase of the project is focused on the study of clinically healthy individuals. The absence of these data complicates significantly the interpretation of the patients' blood proteomic profiles and prevents creating diagnostic tests. In the long term prospect, implementation of the project envisages development of a diagnostic test system based on multiple reactions monitoring (MRM) for quantitative measurement of the protein forms associated with some diseases. Development of such test systems will allow predicting the extent of risk of different diseases, diagnosing a disease at its early stage and monitoring the effectiveness of the treatment.