People's Plasma Proteome

There I go with my clever alliterations for titles once again... I know you are super impressed so I shall give you a second to contain yourself... Ready? Off we go!

So plasma is on of the main components of blood. Some people even sell theirs for money! As this article explains, the human plasma proteome has the potential to revolutionize disease diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring. Not only is plasma a great specimen, but it also has the largest and deepest version of the human proteome. Plasma obviously contains plasma proteins, but it also contains proteins from all other tissues, many distinct immunoglobin sequences, and extraordinary range of proteins.

At the moment, only 289 proteins have been reported in plasma, but there are so many more to be found! Right now, the only thing limiting scientists in getting all of these proteins is technology. Currently, we do not have the needed technological insight to get all of the proteins. Fortunately, recent advances in survey techniques will yield at least double the amount proteins we can find. Many of the proteins that we can and will find are indicative of human disease, so these proteins will definitely help us in understanding and combating many diseases. Even with all of these discoveries, only a few proteins are used in routine clinical diagnosis, and the rate the FDA allows these protein tests has declined over the past few years. Despite all of this, hopefully we can find and understand new proteins so we can fight off and combat disease.