Mass spectrometry based proteomic studies on viruses and hosts – A review

In terms of proteomic research in the 21st century, the realm of virology is still regarded as an enormous challenge mainly brought by three aspects, namely, studying on the complex proteome of the virus with unexpected variations, developing more accurate analytical techniques as well as understanding viral pathogenesis and virus–host interaction dynamics. Progresses in these areas will be helpful to vaccine design and antiviral drugs discovery. Mass spectrometry based proteomics have shown exceptional display of capabilities, not only precisely identifying viral and cellular proteins that are functionally, structurally, and dynamically changed upon virus infection, but also enabling us to detect important pathway proteins. In addition, many isolation and purification techniques and quantitative strategies in conjunction with MS can significantly improve the sensitivity of mass spectrometry for detecting low-abundant proteins, replenishing the stock of virus proteome and enlarging the protein–protein interaction maps. Nevertheless, only a small proportion of the infectious viruses in both of animal and plant have been studied using this approach. As more virus and host genomes are being sequenced, MS-based proteomics is becoming an indispensable tool for virology. In this paper, we provide a brief review of the current technologies and their applications in studying selected viruses and hosts.