Following the great promise of the human genome project, a plethora of novel studies have been carried out to investigate the molecular mechanisms of the encoded genes. The main interest of clinical research has consequently shifted toward an improved understanding of the inter-relations of functional elements and transcribed genome regions with specific physiopathologic conditions. This enthusiasm brought novel technological breakthroughs as much as intellectual developments in the experimental design. These were particularly driven by an holistic view of biological phenomena, which are now considered the consequence of organic wholes that are greater than the simple sum of their components. In fact, the human genome project provided us with the first holistic view of our genetic repository, shading new light in the inductive investigation of other molecular and functional repertories such as transcripts, proteins, metabolites, molecular interactions, etc.
Proteome investigations, called proteomics, are the natural development of this approach, now encompassing not only all the proteins encoded in any given cell, but also the set of all proteins isoforms and modifications, the structural description of proteins and their higher-order complex. As proteins are the main effectors of physiological functions, proteomics spans over a wide area of the present “post genomic” investigations. This high-throughput biochemistry will be crucial for the emerging field of system biology, contributing at a direct level to a full description of cellular function and biological phenomena [1, 2]. However, the sequencing of the human genome and that of numerous pathogens has opened the door for proteomics by providing a sequence-based framework for mining proteomes. Most difficult problems ahead is to find out how genes contribute to diseases that have complex pattern of inheritance, such as in the cases of diabetes, asthma, cancer and mental illness. In all these cases, no single gene has implicated in the disease process obtaining a dramatic complex situation.
There is high interest in applying proteomics to foster a better understanding of disease dynamics. In particular clinical biochemistry has found a new era taking advantage from this holistic point of view. The interest in clinical proteomics is due in part to the prospects that a proteomics approach to disease investigations will overcome some of the limitations of other approaches. Because most drug targets are proteins, it is inescapable that proteomics will promote drugs discovery by the identification of new targets for therapeutics with more effective strategies for clinical practice [3].
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