Global profiling of protein complexes: current approaches and their perspective in biomedical research

Despite the rapid evolution of proteomic methods, protein interactions and their participation in protein complexes - an important aspect of their function - has rarely been investigated on the proteome-wide level. Disease states, such as muscular dystrophy or viral infection, are induced by interference in protein-protein interactions within complexes. The purpose of this review is to describe the current methods for global complexome analysis and to critically discuss the challenges and opportunities for the application of these methods in biomedical research. Areas covered: We discuss advancements in experimental techniques and computational tools that facilitate profiling of the complexome. The main focus is on the separation of native protein complexes via size exclusion chromatography and gel electrophoresis, which has recently been combined with quantitative mass spectrometry, for a global protein-complex profiling. The development of this approach has been supported by advanced bioinformatics strategies and fast and sensitive mass spectrometers that have allowed the analysis of whole cell lysates. The application of this technique to biomedical research is assessed, and future directions are anticipated. Expert commentary: The methodology is quite new, and has already shown great potential when combined with complementary methods for detection of protein complexes.