Mass Spectrometry Laboratory
Head: Lenka Hernychová
Brno node
HOME INSTITUTION
Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute
RESEARCH PROGRAMME(S)
RP 1 - Molecular basis of cancer and molecular targets
RP 3 - Biomarkers of cancers and cancer diagnostics
Proteins cannot hide from us! We help reveal the secret intentions of proteins!
- Mission: Find differences at the protein level specifying pathophysiological conditions.
- Vision: Specify sets of biomolecules suitable for research and clinical purposes. Proteomics forms a bridge between genomics and bioinformatics.
Clinical proteomics focuses on the identification of potential biomarkers suitable for cancer diagnosis. Our research group has developed and standardized a method for N-glycan profiling of cancer patient biological samples (e.g. serum or fresh-frozen tissue) available in the Biobanking and biomolecular resources research infrastructure (BBMRI) to search for distinct glycomolecular structures. The method was applied in two studies. The first study on drug resistance in patients with advanced ovarian cancer revealed six biomarkers (specific tissue complex glycan structures) that were statistically significantly associated with primary resistance to platinum derivative-based chemotherapy treatment. Compared with the treatment-sensitive group, overall survival and progression-free survival were half that of the treatment-sensitive group. The second study aimed to differentiate 10 subtypes of breast cancer that were initially defined only by morphology and immunohistochemistry. The results of the analyses indicated that tissue-derived N-glycans were suitable for distinguishing subtypes of carcinomas, in contrast to sera, where no statistically significantly different glycan structures were observed.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- O’Neill JR, Yébenes Mayordomo M, Mitulović G, Al Shboul S, Bedran G, Faktor J, Hernychova L, Uhrik L, Gomez-Herranz M, Kocikowski M, Save V, Vojtěšek B, Arends M; OCCAMS consortium; Hupp T, Alfaro J. Multi-omic analysis of Esophageal Adenocarcinoma uncovers candidate therapeutic targets and cancer-selective post-transcriptional regulation. Mol Cell Proteomics. 2024 Apr 9:100764. DOI: 10.1016/j.mcpro.2024.100764
- Nekulová M, Wyszkowska M, Friedlová N, Uhrík L, Zavadil Kokáš F, Hrabal V, Hernychová L, Vojtěšek B, Hupp TR, Szymański MR. Biochemical evidence for conformational variants in the anti-viral and pro-metastatic protein IFITM1. Biol Chem. 2024 Feb 22;405(5):311-324. DOI: 10.1515/hsz-2023-0327
- Benesova I, Nenutil R, Urminsky A, Lattova E, Uhrik L, Grell P, Kokas FZ, Halamkova J, Zdrahal Z, Vojtesek B, Novotny MV, Hernychova L. N-glycan profiling of tissue samples to aid breast cancer subtyping. Sci Rep. 2024 Jan 3;14(1):320. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-51021-3
- Nemergut M, Marques SM, Uhrik L, Vanova T, Nezvedova M, Gadara DC, Jha D, Tulis J, Novakova V, Planas-Iglesias J, Kunka A, Legrand A, Hribkova H, Pospisilova V, Sedmik J, Raska J, Prokop Z, Damborsky J, Bohaciakova D, Spacil Z, Hernychova L, Bednar D, Marek M. Domino-like effect of C112R mutation on ApoE4 aggregation and its reduction by Alzheimer’s Disease drug candidate. Mol Neurodegener. 2023 Jun 6;18(1):38. DOI: 10.1186/s13024-023-00620-9
- Toul M, Slonkova V, Mican J, Urminsky A, Tomkova M, Sedlak E, Bednar D, Damborsky J, Hernychova L, Prokop Z. Identification, characterization, and engineering of glycosylation in thrombolytics. Biotechnol Adv. 2023 Sep;66:108174. DOI: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2023.108174
COLLABORATION WITHIN THE NICR
Helena Kupcová Skalníková
(Prague node, First Faculty of Medicine CU)
SPECIALIZED EXPERTISE AND TECHNOLOGY
Proteomic analyses (identification, quantification of proteins, detection of post-translational modifications)
Glycomics and glycoproteomics
Structural proteomics (HDX-MS)