PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ulf Landegren
AU  - Rasel A. Al-Amin
AU  - Johan Björkesten
TI  - A myopic perspective on the future of protein diagnostics
AID  - 10.1101/227728
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 227728
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/12/04/227728.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/12/04/227728.full
AB  - Plasma proteome analyses of the future promise invaluable insights into states of health, not only by measuring proteins whose role it is to ensure blood homeostasis, but increasingly also as a window into the health of practically any tissue in the body via so-called leakage protein biomarkers. Realizing more of this vast potential will require progress along many lines. Here we discuss the main ones, such as optimal selection of target proteins, affinity reagents, immunoassay formats, samples, and applications, with a view from ongoing work in our laboratory.Protein leakage markers can allow liquid biopsies that reveal disease processesLeakage markers promise diagnosis at early timepoints, but progress has been slowTissue-specific proteins are of special interest as potential leakage markersHigh-quality affinity reagents remain a limiting factor for new assaysTarget recognition by two or more antibodies improves specificityExtensive biobanks of dried blood spot could serve to validate markersGreatly increased protein assay throughput can be foreseen in research