Platelet proteomics: identification of potential therapeutic targets

The integration of proteomics into biochemical and biological investigation has proved a powerful tool in understanding the anucleate platelet. Over the past few years, various approaches have been used to document platelet proteins and here, we describe our efforts to analyse specific platelet subproteomes so as to capture biologically relevant proteins of low abundance. These include characterisation of the phosphotyrosine proteome, the platelet releasate and more recently, the proteome of membrane lipid rafts. These approaches have revealed a wealth of relevant platelet proteins, which may in the future prove suitable as therapeutic targets in atherothrombosis.