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Objective: To preliminarily study the essence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients of cold-dampness arthralgia spasm syndrome (CDASS) at the protein expression level., Methods: Totally 24 RA patients were recruited from Department of Rheumatology, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine from July 2009 to September 2010. They were assigned to the CDASS group and the dampness-heat arthralgia spasm syndrome (DHASS) group according to Chinese medicine syndrome typing, 12 in each group. The normal control group consisted of 12 healthy volunteers from the Health Examination Center, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine. The serum proteins were compared between the CDASS group and the normal control group/the DHASS group respectively using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. The common differential protein spots of CDASS were analyzed by mass spectrometry. The SwissProt database was inquired using Mascot Software to identify differential proteins., Results: There were 81 differential protein spots between the CDASS group and the normal control group. There were 45 differential protein spots between the CDASS group and the DHASS group. Thirteen protein spots were found to be higher or lower in protein expression quantity of the CDASS group when compared with those of the other two groups. Nine differential protein spots were identified by mass spectrometry and database retrieval. It's suggested that these proteins were most likely to be related with inhibition of cellular events, such as cell proliferation, cell differentiation, and so on., Conclusion: 4.1 protein and DLC-1 protein were of potential significance in the diagnosis, prognostic markers, or treatment targets of RA patients of CDASS, which also provided evidence for further studies on the essence of CDASS.

To identify new biomarkers that improve the early diagnosis and lead to possible therapeutic targets in pancreatic carcinoma, we performed a proteomic approach to compare serum protein expression patterns of pancreatic carcinoma patients with that of gastric cancer patients, other pancreatic disease patients, and healthy volunteers. By two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) analyses and mass spectroscopic identification, 10 protein spots were found significantly changed in pancreatic carcinoma and 5 proteins including cyclin I, Rab GDP dissociation inhibitor beta (GDI2), alpha-1 antitrypsin precursor, Haptoglobin precursor, and Serotransferrin precursor were successfully identified. The increased levels of cyclin I and GDI2 found to be associated with pancreatic carcinoma were further confirmed by Western blot analyses in an independent series of serum samples and/or pancreatic juice samples. Applying immunohistochemistry, we further validated expression of cyclin I and GDI2 in additional pancreatic carcinomas. These results indicate that cyclin I and GDI2 may be potential molecular targets for pancreatic cancer diagnostics and therapeutics.