Protein Adductomics: Methodologies for Untargeted Screening of Adducts to Serum Albumin and Hemoglobin in Human Blood Samples

The reaction products of electrophiles in vivo can be measured as adducts to the abundant proteins, hemoglobin (Hb), and human serum albumin (HSA), in human blood samples. During the last decade, methods for untargeted screening of such adducts, called “adductomics”, have used liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to detect large numbers of previously unknown Hb and HSA adducts. This review presents methodologies that were developed and used in our laboratories for Hb and HSA adductomics, respectively. We discuss critical aspects regarding choice of target protein, sample preparation, mass spectrometry, data evaluation, and strategies for identification of detected unknown adducts. With this review we give an overview of these two methodologies used for protein adductomics and the precursor electrophiles that have been elucidated from the adducts.