High-content affinity-based proteomics: unlocking protein biomarker discovery

Single protein biomarkers measured with antibody-based affinity assays are the basis of molecular diagnostics in clinical practice today. There is great hope in discovering new protein biomarkers and combinations of protein biomarkers for advancing medicine through monitoring health, diagnosing disease, guiding treatment, and developing new therapeutics. The goal of high-content proteomics is to unlock protein biomarker discovery by measuring many (thousands) or all (∼23,000) proteins in the human proteome in an unbiased, data-driven approach. High-content proteomics has proven technically difficult due to the diversity of proteins, the complexity of relevant biological samples, such as blood and tissue, and large concentration ranges (in the order of 10(12) in blood). Mass spectrometry and affinity methods based on antibodies have dominated approaches to high-content proteomics. For technical reasons, neither has achieved adequate simultaneous performance and high-content. Here we review antibody-based protein measurement, multiplexed antibody-based protein measurement, and limitations of antibodies for high-content proteomics due to their inherent cross-reactivity. Finally, we review a new affinity-based proteomic technology developed from the ground up to solve the problem of high content with high sensitivity and specificity. Based on a new generation of slow off-rate modified aptamers (SOMAmers), this technology is unlocking biomarker discovery.