K.K. Jain, Textbook of Personalized Medicine, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4939-2553-7_6, 159
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015
Chapter 6
Pharmacoproteomics
Basics of Proteomics
The term ‘proteomics’ indicates PROTEins expressed by a genOME and is the
systematic analysis of protein profi les of tissues. Proteomics parallels the related
fi eld of genomics. Now that the human genome has been sequenced, we face the
greater challenge of making use of this information for improving healthcare and
discovering new drugs. There is an increasing interest in proteomics technologies
now because deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequence information provides only a
static snapshot of the various ways in which the cell might use its proteins whereas
the life of the cell is a dynamic process. A detailed discussion of proteomics is given
in a special report on this topic (Jain 2015 ). Application to development of personal-
ized medicine will be discussed here briefl y.
Role of proteomics in drug discovery and development is termed “pharmacopro-
teomics” and is a more functional representation of patient-to-patient variation than
that provided by genotyping, which indicates its important role in the development
of personalized medicine (Jain 2004 ). Pharmacoproteomics is parallel to pharma-
cogenomics and is used for subtyping patients on the basis of protein analysis.
Proteomics-based characterization of multifactorial diseases may help to match a
particular target-based therapy to a particular biomarker in a subgroup of patients.
By classifying patients as responders and non-responders, this approach may accel-
erate the drug development process. Because it includes the effects of post-
translational modifi cation, pharmacoproteomics connects the genotype with the
phenotype – a connection that is not always predicted by genotyping alone. For
example, a silent SNP can give rise to two or more variants forms of mRNAs that do
not produce an altered amino acid sequence in the proteins that are encoded, but it
can alter a phenotype by inducing change in the mRNA folding. An understanding
of mRNA conformational changes could lead to new drug targets such as an allele-
specifi c target.
Proteomics-based characterization of multifactorial diseases may help to match
a particular target-based therapy to a particular marker in a subgroup of patients.