An investigator sifts through trash, uncovers clues, and assembles a case-cracking profile. Are we watching a crime drama? No, we’re following the progress of a scientific study, one that reaches into the cell’s trash and finds tell-tale patterns of protein turnover and degradation. In this case, the cells are immune cells, from patients suffering systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and the patterns are protein degradation signatures. These signatures, it happens, show what conventional protein expression signatures don’t. In fact, the trash-derived signatures point to a new understanding of SLE. Just as important, the study demonstrates a cellular dumpster diving technique that might be useful in other cases of autoimmunity, as well as in cases of protein aggregation diseases and cancer. The technique, called Mass spectrometry Analysis of Proteolytic Peptides (MAPP), was developed by scientists based at the Weizmann Institute of Science, in the laboratory of principal investigator Yifat Merbl, ...
Original Article: Cellular Dumpster Diving Yields Diagnostic Treasure