Employment of complementary dissociation techniques for body fluid characterization and biomarker discovery

Proteomic analysis of biological fluids has become the de facto method for biomarker discovery over the past half decade. Mass spectrometry, in particular, has emerged as the premier technology to perform such analysis. This shift in the prevailing choice of analytical method is primarily due to the rapid evolution of mass spectrometry technology, with advances in acquisition speed, increased resolving power and mass accuracy, and the development of novel fragmentation methods. The benefits of using one of these new fragmentation methods, electron-transfer dissociation, as a complement to the traditional dissociation technique (i.e., collision-activated dissociation) have been thoroughly illustrated. Detailed here is a method for proteomic analysis of a readily obtainable and often investigated biological fluid, blood plasma, which takes advantage of these complementary dissociation techniques and employs the most recent advances in mass spectrometry technology.