Combinatorial peptide ligand libraries for the analysis of low-expression proteins: Validation for normal urine and definition of a first protein MAP

In this review, we report the evolution on experimental conditions for the analysis of normal urine based on combinatorial peptide ligand library (CPLL) treatment and successive 2-DE and 2-DE/MS analysis. The main topics are (i) definition of the urine sample requirements, (ii) optimization of the urine/ligand ratio, (iii) essay conditions, (iv) en bloc elution. Overall, normal urine protein composition as studied by 2-DE includes over 2600 spots. Relevant data on inter and intraessay reproducibility obtained by the analysis of different normal urines repeated several times are also here presented. We found a 73% reproducibility upon analysis of the same sample and 68% correspondence of protein composition among different normal urine samples. Based on the above results, we are completing the characterization with LC-MS of 249 spots. The composition of normal urine proteins after CPLLs is finally shown with the indication of those spots which are currently under identification. This map will be completed in a near future; in the meantime this would represent the basic reference sample for newly developed studies on human diseases.