Proteoformics: Current status and future perspectives

Proteoforms represent the ultimate structural/functional forms of a gene product, defined by multiple factors, including amino acid sequences, post-translational modifications, spatial conformations, and interactions with other molecules. The human proteoform diversity significantly exceeds the number of human genes/transcripts, emphasizing the need for advanced analytical methods to characterize this complexity. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis-liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (2DE-LC/MS) and top-down MS (TD-MS) are complementary to detect, identify, and quantify the large-scale proteoforms. The emerging AI tools for structural biology such as AlphaFold 3 and D-I-TASSER will enable proteoformics to be high-throughput and precisely predict spatial conformations and molecular interactions. Integrating the large-scale experimental data derived from 2DE-LC/MS and TD-MS with AI-driven high-throughput structural analysis paves the way to deeply understand proteoform diversity and functionality. The combination of advanced 2DE-LC/MS, TD-MS, and AI-driven structural analysis represents a pivotal advancement in proteoformics. This integrated approach enables the comprehensive profiling of proteoforms, providing critical insights into their roles in health care. Such advancements hold promise for predictive, preventive, and personalized medicine, particularly through biomarker discovery and therapeutic target identification. Future developments in high-throughput capabilities and dynamic modeling are expected to address current challenges and further expand the applicability of proteoformics in biological and clinical research. SIGNIFICANCE: Proteoformics is the future of proteomics, whose two main complementary analytical approaches are 2DE-LC/MS and TD-MS. The AI-driven large-cale structural analysis enables to high-throughput and precisely analyze spatial conformations and molecular interactions of proteoforms, which helps to deeply understand proteoform diversity and functionality. Proteoformics holds transformative potential to uncover biomarkers, guide targeted therapies, and advance predictive diagnosis in the context of personalized medicine.