Cover Picture: Proteomics 24'10

Abstract Speed is of the essence In the Emergency Room television programs it seems everyone runs around yelling “STAT” for one thing or another. Does it really matter that much? In the case of a heart attack (or myocardial infarct) the answer is “YES!” especially when reperfusion capabilities are on site. Reperfusion can be very beneficial but only if it is administered promptly, delayed past 10 min in a rat it causes ischemia/reperfusion injury, which can have a bad long‐term outcome. Cadete et al. used 2‐D DIGE proteomic tools to evaluate the effects of a drug, Y‐27632, which is known to have a cardioprotective effect linked to Rho kinase inhibitor by inhibition of the ROCK pathway. They found increased levels of lactate dehydrogenase and glyceraldehyde‐3‐phosphate dehydrogenase, and “normalized” levels of ATP synthase fragments. All of which point to protection by increased energy production. Cadete, V. J. J. et al ., Proteomics 2010, 10 , 4377–4385. Buds without petals As I write this, an epidemic has struck San Francisco, infecting at least half of the Bay Area with World Series‐itis. The only palliative seems to be imbibing large amounts of a budding yeast fermentation product by the name of “Bud(weiser)”. Although they don't play baseball in Dublin, the residents are known for their imbibing of a related product known as “Guinness Stout”. Scaife et al. , Dublin, are progressing with a study of the effect of meiosis and sporulation on the proteome of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a function of time and p I . This paper covers p I range 6–11 for 0–11 hours after start of meiosis and sporulation. Their principal tool is 2‐D DIGE, followed by protein elution, digestion and MALDI‐TOF/TOF for identification. This paper is the follow‐on to an earlier study covering p I 4–7 and the same time frame. Scaife, C. et al ., Proteomics 2010, 10 , 4401–4414. Diagnosis of double‐whammy for kids Systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (SJIA) is at least two diseases in one: Arthritis and systemic inflammation. There is no specific diagnostic for either part of the disease, a fact which attracted Ling et al. to examine plasma from the disease in “flare” (active) state and “quiescent” (inactive) state and, as controls, from similar single diseases (acute febrile illness and juvenile idiopathic arthritis) using proteomic tools in a search for potential bio‐markers. They struck gold in the form of a set of 15 proteins that gave a robust difference between SJIA flare and SJIA quiescent, acute febrile illness and juvenile idiopathic arthritis. They validated 8 of the 15 proteins with commercial ELISA tests, which also correctly classified independent SJIA cases. The panel also marked inactive Q cases that would flare within the next 9 weeks. IL‐1 appears to have an essential role in disease flare. Ling, X. B. et al ., Proteomics 2010, 10 , 4415–4430.