Proteomics as a tool for the modelling of biological processes and biomarker development in nutrition research

Nutrition research has slowly started to adopt the proteomics techniques to measure changes in the protein complement of a biological system. This enables modelling of biological processes in response to dietary interventions, as well as the elucidation of novel biomarkers for health or disease that are sensitive to such interventions. There are limited studies on the effect of micronutrients on the proteome, so this review concentrates rather more on dietary intervention studies that have used proteomics (mainly classical 2D gel electrophoresis combined with mass spectrometry) to elucidate changes in pathways that relate to glucose and fatty acid metabolism, oxidative stress, anti-oxidant defence mechanisms and redox status. The ability to measure regulation of more low abundant proteins, such as those involved in inflammatory pathways, as well as the evaluation and validation of newly discovered candidate biomarkers in human biofluids, may depend on the introduction of more quantitative and sensitive methods like multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) and multiplexed immunoassays in nutrition research.