Overall, the authors found that cisplatin treatment of platinum-resistant
OvCa cells increased MHC Class Pictilisib in vitro I presentation of peptides derived from various proteins implicated in cancer [74]. In another study, iTRAQ was used to quantify protein expression between the cisplatin-sensitive cell line, COC1, and its resistant subline, COC1/DDP, which revealed decreased and increased levels of two proteins, PKM2 and HSPD1, respectively, in resistant cancer cells [75]. Subsequent functional knockdown of PKM2 and HSPD1 revealed that these proteins play a role in cell viability, and therefore, may serve as potential therapeutic targets [75]. Moreover, Stewart et al. used another form of isotope labelling, ICAT, to compare the proteome of sensitive and resistant IGROV-1 cancer cells, in which differentially expressed proteins were then correlated with mRNA expression; however, due to suggested post-transcriptional mechanisms, the majority of candidates did not display the same changes in expression at both the protein and mRNA levels [76]. Besides
looking at total protein expression as a whole, another approach to studying chemoresistance involves the study of glycoproteomics. During cancer progression, protein PTMs, particularly glycosylation, display altered expression patterns, which may contribute to the malignancy of the disease as discussed previously. Glycan structures may also contribute to various biological processes that promote tumorigenesis and encourage metastatic see more behaviour. Therefore, analyzing alterations of glycan structures has been a viable method for the discovery of markers related to chemoresistance. Enrichment and characterization of the glycoproteome from A2780-sensitive and -resistant cell lines has also led to the identification of a few glycoproteins,
including CD70, tumour rejection antigen (gp96) 1, triose phosphatase isomerase, palmitoyl-protein, thioesterase 1 precursor and ER-associated DNAJ, which represent putative markers of chemotherapy resistance [66] and [77]. Interestingly, the majority MAPK inhibitor of proteins identified through glycoprotein enrichment were not uncovered in proteomic analyses of the entire proteome, which underlines its advantage in discovering low-abundant markers of drug resistance [77]. Subsequent validation of these findings in clinically annotated patient tumour samples may lead to the incorporation of these markers into the clinic, which will be important before analyzing these markers as therapeutic targets. Proteomic technologies have also been applied to characterize the proteomes of subcellular organelles, which is useful for gaining insight into their biological function during various diseased states. It has been recognized that the ability of malignant cells to evade apoptosis may play a major role in the resistance of tumour cells to chemotherapeutic agents.