Proteomic evaluation of cancer cells: identification of cell surface proteins

The plasma membrane proteome can be defined as the entire complement of proteins present in the plasma membrane at a specific time. The process of carcinogenesis leads to changes in the array of proteins present in the plasma membrane proteome. Analysis of differential expression of such proteins in cancer is extremely important; due to their position on the cell surface they have a potential for use as diagnostic and/or prognostic markers and therapeutic targets. Biotin labelling followed by avidin chromatography can be used to obtain membrane protein enriched lysates from cell lines, which can then be resolved using SDS-PAGE, coomassie staining and mass spectrometry.