Status and prospects for discovery and verification of new biomarkers of cardiovascular disease by proteomics

Despite unmet needs for cardiovascular biomarkers, few new protein markers have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the diagnosis or screening of cardiovascular diseases. Mass spectrometry-based proteomics technologies are capable of identifying hundreds to thousands of proteins in cells, tissues, and biofluids. Proteomics may therefore provide the opportunity to elucidate new biomarkers and pathways without a prior known association with cardiovascular disease; however, important obstacles remain. In this review, we focus on emerging techniques that may form a coherently integrated pipeline to overcome present limitations to both the discovery and validation processes.