Objective: To screen the serum proteins related to human lung adenocarcinoma using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) technology.
Methods: The blood samples were collected from 10 patients of lung adenocarcinoma before and one week after the surgery, while 10 healthy subjects were used as control. The differential protein expression between the two groups and the change of those proteins after surgery were studied by ClinProt magnetic bead enrichment and MALDI-TOF-MS.
Results: Six protein peaks were identified, 2 of them were highly expressed protein biomarkers with relative molecular weights of 2661, 2991, and increased after the surgery, 4 of them were lowly expressed protein biomarkers with relative molecular weights of 4091, 4210, 4644, 5336, which continuously decreased after the surgery.
Conclusion: ClinProt magnetic bead enrichment and MALDI-TOF-MS is a quick, easy and sensitive method of proteomics. The differential expressed proteins may be the latent tumor marker of lung adenocarcinoma. The alteration of those proteins after surgery might be helpful to assess the therapeutic effect and prognosis.