Proteomic Portrait of Human Lymphoma Reveals Protein Molecular Fingerprint of Disease Specific Subtypes and Progression.

An altered proteome in lymph nodes often suggests abnormal signaling pathways that may be associated with diverse lymphatic disorders. Current clinical biomarkers for histological classification of lymphomas have encountered many discrepancies, particularly for borderline cases. Therefore, we launched a comprehensive proteomic study aimed to establish a proteomic landscape of patients with various lymphatic disorders and identify proteomic variations associated with different disease subgroups. In this study, 109 fresh-frozen lymph node tissues from patients with various lymphatic disorders (with a focus on Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma) were analyzed by data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry. A quantitative proteomic landscape was comprehensively characterized, leading to the identification of featured protein profiles for each subgroup. Potential correlations between clinical outcomes and expression profiles of signature proteins were also probed. Two representative signature proteins, phospholipid-binding proteins Annexin A6 (ANXA6) and Phospholipase C Gamma 2 (PLCG2), were successfully validated via immunohistochemistry. We also evaluated the capability of acquired proteomic signatures to segregate multiple lymphatic abnormalities and identified several core signature proteins, such as Sialic Acid Binding Ig Like Lectin 1 (SIGLEC1) and GTPase of immunity-associated protein 5 (GIMAP5). In summary, the established lympho-specific data resource provides a comprehensive map of protein expression in lymph nodes during multiple disease states, thus extending the existing human tissue proteome atlas. Our findings will be of great value in exploring protein expression and regulation underlying lymphatic malignancies, while also providing novel protein candidates to classify various lymphomas for more precise medical practice.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43657-022-00075-w.