SWATH-based Proteomics Identified Carbonic Anhydrase 2 as a Potential Diagnosis Biomarker for Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Luo, Y.; Mok, T.S.; Lin, X.; et al.

Given the prevalence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in Asian populations, there is an increasing need for diagnostic protein biomarkers. To that end, Luo and colleagues used a SILAC-labeled spike-in standard (consisting of ¹³C₆/¹⁵N₂-Lys and ¹³C₆/¹⁵N₄-Arg) for a super-SILAC shotgun MS analysis of human nasopharyngeal tissue samples. Through SWATH (i.e., sequential window acquisition of all theoretical fragment ion spectra)-MS analysis, 1,414 proteins were identified and quantified, with a subset of 29 statistically found to be differentially expressed. Verification with MS and immunoblotting data revealed carbonic anhydrase 2 to be a novel, potential biomarker worthy of future exploration.