The role of capillary electrophoresis–mass spectrometry to proteome analysis and biomarker discovery

CE offers a low running cost, short separation time, and a high-resolution technique that requires only a small amount of analyte. It has a wide variety of operation modes (CZE, CEC, CIEF, CITP, CAE, CGE and MEKC) that can be interfaced with MS for tissue and body fluid analysis, particularly urine and cerebrospinal fluid, to identify potential proteomic markers for the clinical diagnosis of many diseases (renal, genitourinary, vascular, diabetes mellitus, cancer, arthritis and neurological diseases) and for the monitoring of their therapeutic intervention. It has become evident that no one marker would be sufficient, but a combination of well-selected markers would be needed for that purpose. The potential of CE coupled to MS for studying the pathophysiology of these diseases and the development of biomarkers has been demonstrated. These biomarkers, when validated, will allow greater use of noninvasive methods for diagnosis of diseases, assessment of their progression, and monitoring individuals’ response to therapy.