Protein profiling to identify serum biomarkers for early detection of breast cancer in African American women: 2859

African American (AA) women have a higher lifetime risk of fatal breast cancer than White women. The age-standardized rate in AA women is approximately 30% higher than in White women. Important contributing factors suggested are hormonal, genetic, environmental and socioeconomic. The purpose of the study was to identify markers of early-stage breast cancer to prevent the disease among AA women. The original study includes 30 AA breast cancer women, 30 healthy controls, 20 DDT-exposed and 20 DDT -unexposed women. Hypothesis: We expect that changes taking place in the mammary gland prior to the appearance of breast cancer will be reflected in proteins that will appear in the blood. Methods: In this initial study, we utilized the 2-Dimensional Fluorescence Difference Gel Electrophoresis/ Mass Spectrometry (2D DIGE/MS) analyses of sera from three AA women newly diagnosed with breast cancer, two DDT-exposed AA women and four healthy women to identify breast cancer biomarkers. Images were processed using DeCyder software for differential in gel analysis (DIA). Proteins that were differentially expressed were picked for mass spectral analysis for protein identification. The spots were processed on Spot Handler Workstation (SHW) and the extracted peptides were subjected to MALDI MS and or LC/QTOF (Ettan MALDI Pro) analysis for protein identification. The data was processed with Masslynx 4.0 software to generate peak lists and processed MS/MS data was submitted for database searching through Mascot to identify the proteins. Results: A comparison of the serum proteomes derived from patients diagnosed with breast cancer and women exposed to DDT against healthy subjects yielded approximately eighty proteins whose expression was altered. These proteins were identified by MS. Conclusion: Our study indicates that the expression of several proteins was significantly altered in breast cancer and DDT-exposed women. Further studies are necessary to examine these biomarkers that were significantly different between breast cancer patients, DDT-exposed women and healthy subjects to examine their role in disease etiology. These proteins could serve as potential markers of early stage breast cancer to prevent the disease among African American women.