EuPA News from the EuPA Conference and Communication Committee (CCC)

The mission of the EuPA CCC is to ensure the visibility of EuPA members and initiatives promoting dissemination of their activities throughout the entire scientifi c community and the society in general as well as to facilitate the funding of EuPA core projects. The Committee counts on six members who are organized in working groups with four main objectives: 1. Coordination between EuPA General Council and Proteomics national societies for EuPA Conferences organization (P. Roncada, C. Gil and F.J. Corrales). 2. Coordination of EuPA Web site development and maintenance (M. Marchetti-Deshmann, D. Penque and F.J. Corrales). 3. Coordination of EuPA communication projects including EuPA News (N. Turck, C. Gil and F.J. Corrales). 4. Promotion of EuPA workshops (All).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Proteomics: A Match for Success?

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by chronic airflow limitation that is not fully reversible even under bronchodilators effect, caused by a mixture of small airway disease and parenchymal destruction. COPD is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in adults, and it is now the fourth leading death cause in the world. Cigarette smoking is the main risk factor for COPD but not all smokers will suffer from COPD, suggesting that genetic and other environmental factors are involved in this pathology. Current diagnosis is based on spirometry, but there is recurrent debate on fixed spirometric thresholds in use that lead to misdiagnosis and/or classification of COPD. The available treatments are not effective to reduce or suppress the progression of COPD. Hence, there is an urgent need to better understand the molecular mechanisms of COPD pathogenesis to provide clinicians with reliable diagnosis and treatment tools for COPD. Proteomics, defined by the comprehensive study of the proteome, has the potential to respond to this need by providing protein profiles of a particular disease and, at the same time, by identifying specific biomarkers that can be used to better understand, diagnose and manage the disease. Here, we shortly review COPD history and pathology and how proteomics can match COPD for success

Proteomics in biomarker discovery for clinical purposes

Clinical Proteomics Dedicated to the study of the PROTEOME PROFILE associated with the HEALTHY AND DISEASE STATE, in the search for DIAGNOSTIC / PROGNOSTIC / MONITORING BIOMARKERS or as TARGETS for the development of new therapeutic approachesWork partially supported by FCT research grants: PCOTI/ESP/44720/2002, POCTI/MGI/40848/2001, POCTI/SAU-MMO/56163/2004, Gulbenkian Fondation-ACSS ; Harvard Medical School-Portugal Program (HMSP-ICJ/0022/2011

Second-hand smoke exposure effects on nasal epithelia proteome

Environmental second-hand smoke exposure (SHS) results in a statistically significant increase in the risk of diseases such cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer. Cigarette smoke contains thousands of constituents, including several carcinogens and cytotoxic chemicals that orchestrate chronic inflammatory responses and destructive remodeling events1,2. In this work, our main objective is to uncover biomarkers of SHS exposure effects by investigating the proteome of nasal epithelia from health subjects occupationally long–term exposed to SHS.Work partially funded by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Administração Central do Sistema de Saúde, Portugal. SN, SP worked under FCT fellowshipsN/

Understanding by proteomics thew cellular trafficking defect of a disease associated mutant protein

Comunicaciones a congreso

Plasma and red blood cell proteome in sickle-cell disease

Sickle-cell disease (SCD) is a clinically heterogeneous autosomal recessive monogenic chronic anaemia characterized by recurrent episodes of severe vaso-occlusion, haemolysis and infection. Painful crises are the major SCD clinical manifestation probably due to significant increase in dense red blood cells (RBC) and reduction of their ability to pass through capillaries. Using proteomic strategies, we aim to discover novel and better SCD prognosis biomarkers as early predictors of the transition from steady-state to crisis namely vaso-occlusive episodes, thus, allowing a prompt and specific therapeutic interventio

Optimizing the discovery of predictors of vaso-occlusion in sickle-cell disease by proteomics

Painful crises are the major sickle-cell disease (SCD) clinical manifestation probably due to significant increase in dense red blood cells (RBC) and reduction of their ability to pass through capillaries. Using proteomic strategies (see figure below), we aimed to discover novel SCD prognosis biomarkers as early predictors of the transition from steady-state to vaso-occlusive crises thus, allowing a prompt and specific therapeutic intervention

Proteoforms of transthyretin - candidate biomarkers in diagnosis of obstructive sleep

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common sleep-related breathing disorder which is characterized by recurrent occurrence of partial or complete closure of the upper airway during sleep, despite ongoing efforts to breathe. The majority of patients with OSA remain undiagnosed since most of them only come to the attention of a clinician when they complain of daytime sleepiness or when their bed partners report loud snoring or witnessed apnea episodes.Epidemiological studies have indicated that OSA affects 6–13% of the adult population. OSA is multifactorial disease, also considered as metabolic syndrome, which diagnosis in early stages is challenging thus often remain undiagnosed. Recently was found connection between transthyretin (TTR) protein modifications present in human plasma samples and appearance of sleep apnea syndrome1,2 . Mass Spectrometric Immunoassay (MSIA) was successfully applied previously on identification of and quantification of TTR variants present in human serum3. We took advantage on this powerful method to investigate possible modifications of TTR proteoforms in patients with OSAS.N/

Second-hand tobacco smoke effects evaluated by proteomics

Second-hand smoke (SHS) is responsible for more then 600000 premature year deaths. In the European Union, 14% of Non-Smokers (NS) are exposed to other individuals’ tobacco smoke at home and 30% are exposed at the workplace. Towards their protection several European countries, except Portugal, move to a total tobacco ban in indoor public places. In 2008, a project aiming to analyze the impact of partial smoking ban in Portuguese public venues started. After our previously evidence of both SHS air contamination in non-smoking areas and inhalation of tobacco smoke by the venues workers, we aimed to study resultant biochemical and molecular changes at both systemic and respiratory level

Obstructive sleep apnea associated with Diabetes mellitus Type 2: a proteomic study

Background: We previously showed that Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a common public health concern causing deleterious cardiometabolic dysfunction, induced proteomic alterations in red blood cells (RBC) such as changes in the redox-oligomeric state of peroxiredoxin 2 (PRDX2)1-2. Herein, we aimed to investigate whether OSA patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus before and after positive airway pressure (PAP) treatment present similar changes in the RBC antioxidant protein PRDX2 to better understand the molecular basic mechanisms associated with OSA and OSA outcomes. Methods: RBC samples from control snorers (n=22 being 3 diabetics) and OSA patients before and after six month of PAP-treatment (n=29 being 8 diabetics) were analysed by non-reducing western blot using antibody against PRDX2 or PRDXSO2/3 to measure the total and overoxidized levels of monomeric/dimeric/multimeric forms of PRDX2. Results: We confirmed previously data by showing that in OSA RBC the overoxidation on the monomeric forms of PRDX2 was higher compared to controls. After PAP treatment, this overoxidation decreased followed by an increase of multimeric-overoxidized forms of PRDX2 described to be associated with chaperone protective function. In contrast, the level of PRDX2 monomers in RBC diabetic OSA, although higher abundant its overoxidation level was much lower than those observed in OSA without comorbidity and did not significant change after treatment. Moreover, the level of PAP-induced PRDX2-overoxidized-multimers was also lower in these diabetic OSA patients. The level of overoxidized monomeric/dimeric forms of PRDX2 correlated negatively with levels of insulin / triglycerides and HbA1C, respectively. After PAP, the level of (overoxidized) PRDX2SO2/3 multimers correlated positively with adrenaline levels. Conclusions: The redox/oligomeric state of RBC PRDX2 that is regulated by overoxidation of the active cysteines was differentially modulated in diabetic OSA patients compared to OSA without this comorbidity. PAP-induced overoxidized oligo forms of PRDX2 that is associated with chaperone protective function showed decreased in OSA patients with diabetes. The clinical impact of these findings needs further investigation and validation.Project partially supported by Harvard Medical School-Portugal Program (HMSP-ICJ/0022/2011), ToxOmics - Centre for Toxicogenomics and Human Health (FCT-UID/BIM/00009/2013).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio