In: Biology
Scenario: you isolate a new drug that seems to be particularly effective at inhibiting a metabolic pathway in tumor cells. You want to do an experiment that compares global changes in the number and types of different proteins in cells that are treated with the compound vs. untreated cells. how can this be accomplished experimentally.
( upper division biochemistry lab)
Cancerous cells demonstrate extremely active metabolism since they require uninterrupted supply of energy for sustenance. These cells, thus, demonstrate a discrete type of metabolic protein profile which includes not only cytosolic proteins but also organeller proteins such as mitochondria. Thus, it remains important to understand the protein profiling of cancerous cells.
In order to investigate the different in protein profile of treated vs untreated cells, following set of experiments can be conducted:
In this manner, the exact number and type of proteins undergoing differential expression profile in the cancerous cells with and without drug treatment can be investigated.