Utility of reverse phase protein arrays: applications to signalling pathways and human body arrays

Protein microarrays offer a new means by which to conduct quantitative profiling of disease-associated proteins. The knowledge gained may provide novel strategies for early detection, diagnosis and therapeutic intervention. A variety of sophisticated approaches, including gene arrays, sequencing consortiums and large-scale two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, continue to generate lists of proteins potentially linked to disease aetiology and progression. The challenge is to evaluate quantitatively promising lead protein candidates using matched normal and diseased cell populations. In contrast to the antibody array, the reverse phase protein microarrays (RPPA) do not require labelling of cellular protein lysates, and constitute a sensitive high throughput platform for marker screening, pathophysiology investigation and therapeutic monitoring. In this paper, examples will be provided using RPPAs in the study of the apoptotic signalling cascade and in the evaluation of the expression of organ-specific protein makers using microdissected human organ cell lysates configured as 'human body arrays'.