Application of proteomics in cardiovascular medicine

Proteomics is an emerging field that has the potential to uncover new therapeutic targets for the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease, as well as new diagnostic biomarkers for early disease detection. The basic strategy when carrying out proteomic analysis of cardiovascular disease is to compare the protein complements of diseased hearts or sera with controls. Any proteins that have altered expression between the two groups can be studied further for their involvement in disease pathogenesis. A number of steps need to be taken to identify changes in protein expression, including sample preparation, protein separation, imaging, and protein identification. Such studies are already underway in some cardiovascular conditions including dilated cardiomyopathy and atrial fibrillation. This review provides a summary of the techniques used in proteomic analysis and their application to cardiovascular research.