Proteomics of the Heart.

Mass spectrometry-based proteomics is a sophisticated identification tool specializing in portraying protein dynamics at a molecular level. Proteomics provides biologists with a snapshot of context-dependent protein expression, isoform conformations, dynamic turnover information, and data on direct protein-protein interactions. Cardiac proteomics offers researchers and clinicians a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underscore cardiovascular disease, and is foundational to the development of future therapeutic interventions. This review encapsulates the evolution, current technologies, and future perspectives of proteomic-based mass spectrometry as it applies to the study of the heart. Key technological advancements have allowed for researchers to study proteomes at a single cell level, employ robot-assisted automation systems for enhanced sample preparation techniques, and the increase in fidelity of the mass spectrometers has allowed for the unambiguous identification of numerous dynamic post-translational modifications (PTMs). Animal models of cardiovascular disease, ranging from early animal experiments to current sophisticated models of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), have provided the tools to study a challenging organ in the laboratory. Further technological development will pave way for the implementation of proteomics even closer within the clinical setting, allowing not only scientists but also patients to benefit from an understanding of protein interplay as it relates to cardiac disease physiology.