Recent advances in metalloproteomics

Abstract

Interactions between proteins and metal ions and their complexes are important in many areas of the life sciences, including physiology, medicine and toxicology. Despite the involvement of essential elements in all major processes necessary for sustaining life, metalloproteomes remain ill-defined. This is not only owed to the complexity of metalloproteomes, but also the non-covalent character of the complexes that most essential metals form, which complicates analysis. Similar issues may also be encountered for some toxic metals. The review discusses recently developed approaches and current challenges for the study of interactions involving entire (sub-)proteomes with such labile metal ions. In the second part transition metals from the 4th and 5th period are examined, most of which are xenobiotic, and also tend to form more inert complexes. A large research area in this respect concerns metallodrug-protein interactions. Particular attention is paid to separation approaches, as these need to be adapted to the reactivity of the metal under consideration.