Proteomic indicators of oxidation and hydration state in colorectal cancer

New integrative approaches are needed to harness the potential of rapidly growing datasets of protein expression and microbial community composition in colorectal cancer. Chemical and thermodynamic models offer theoretical tools to describe populations of biomacromolecules and their relative potential for formation in different microenvironmental conditions. The average oxidation state of carbon (Z C) can be calculated as an elemental ratio from the chemical formulas of proteins, and water demand per residue ([Formula: see text]) is computed by writing the overall formation reactions of proteins from basis species. Using results reported in proteomic studies of clinical samples, many datasets exhibit higher mean Z C or [Formula: see text] of proteins in carcinoma or adenoma compared to normal tissue. In contrast, average protein compositions in bacterial genomes often have lower Z C for bacteria enriched in fecal samples from cancer patients compared to healthy donors. In thermodynamic calculations, the potential for formation of the cancer-related proteins is energetically favored by changes in the chemical activity of H2O and fugacity of O2 that reflect the compositional differences. The compositional analysis suggests that a systematic change in chemical composition is an essential feature of cancer proteomes, and the thermodynamic descriptions show that the observed proteomic transformations in host tissue could be promoted by relatively high microenvironmental oxidation and hydration states.