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. 2011 Oct 29;2011:754109. doi: 10.1155/2011/754109

Table 2.

Summary of recent reports on the use of proteomics techniques for amyloidosis typing. Studies are grouped according to broad methodological categories.

Investigators Sample type Proteomics techniques Outcome
Immuno affinity MS
Advantages: Identify mutations on
 known amyloid proteins.
Disadvantages: Only applicable to
 known amyloid proteins; Require
 antibody of high specificity;
 Mutation may destroy antigenic
 epitope, leading to reduction of
 antibody binding; Amyloid proteins
 may deposit in tissues leading to low
 serum levels; Not as efficient as
 DNA sequencing.
Tachibana et al. [29] Serum Immunoprecipitation, MALDI-TOF Spectral pattern matching to genetic mutation
Sen et al. [44] Serum, cerebrospinal fluid On-line immunoaffinity capture, ESI-MS Informations on relative abundance of protein isoforms, requires specific antibodies
Bergen et al. [28, 45] Serum Automated-online affinity purification, ESI-MS Clinical assay to detect transthyretin mutations
Nepomuceno et al. [46] Serum Immunoprecipitation, Fourier-transform ion-cyclotron-resonance MS Able to detect 91% of known transthyretin mutations due to high mass accuracy
Lavatelli et al. [47] Serum Immunopurification, SDS-PAGE or 2DE, MS Can detect posttranslational modifications

Antibody-free serum or tissue extract analysis
Advantages: Identify mutations on
 known amyloid proteins; Measure
 relative abundance of mutant to
 wide type proteins.
Disadvantages: Only applicable to
 known amyloid protein.
Kishikawa et al. [48] Serum Multidimensional liquid chromatography, ESI-MS Applied to serum samples without requiring specific antibodies
da Costa et al. [49] Serum SDS-PAGE fractionation, MALDI-Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance MS Quantitation of mutant to wild type transthyretin
Ueda et al. [50] Tissue and serum HPLC separation, SELDI-TOF Quantitation of mutant to wild type transthyretin within 3 hours
Lavatelli et al. [25] Fine needle aspiration of abdominal adipose tissue 2DE, PMF by MALDI-TOF Identification of amyloidogenic proteins

Direct extraction from FFPE samples
Advantages: Identify unknown
 amyloid proteins in tissue sections
 or fat aspirates.
Disadvantages: Protein extraction
 requires days.  
Murphy et al. [11] FFPE HPLC purification, N-terminal sequencing, PMF Successful identification
Murphy et al. [51] FFPE HPLC, MS/MS de novo sequencing Successful identification

LMD with LC-MS/MS
Advantages: Capture specific regions
 of interest: amyloid deposits from
 FFPE sections; Identify unknown
 amyloid proteins in tissue sections;
 Protein extraction within hours.
Disadvantages: Requires specialist
 LMD equipment and expertise.
Rodrigues et al. [52] FFPE of immunoglobulin deposits in nerve tissue LMD, LC-MS/MS Successful identification
Vrana et al. [55] FFPE samples of four amyloid types, 50 cases in training set, 41 cases in validation set LMD, LC-MS/MS, algorithm to assign amyloid type according to highest number of spectra >98% specificity and sensitivity for the 4 amyloid types examined
Klein et al. [53] FFPE of various amyloid types in nerve tissue LMD, LC-MS/MS Successful identification of all 21 cases including transthyretin mutations
Sethi et al. [54] FFPE of immunoglobulin renal deposits LMD, LC-MS/MS Successful identification

MS Imaging
Advantages: Detecting amyloids in
 situ, allowing correlation to
 deposits; No extraction steps.
Disadvantages: Specialist MS
 imaging software and expertise
 required.
Stoeckli et al. [58] Frozen tissue MSI Localization of amyloid β peptides in mouse brain sections
Seely and Caprioli [59] One 100 year old amyloid FFPE sample In-situ tryptic digest and imaging MALDI-MS/MS Successful identification of serum amyloid A