Proteomic technologies represent new strategies towards high-throughput, simultaneous analysis of thousands of
biological molecules leading to the discovery of
biomarkers for early diagnosis, prognosis and prediction of pregnancy outcome. Proteomics have additional relevance in understanding pathophysiology and the development of molecularly targeted
therapeutics. Comparison of normal human amniotic fluid
proteome with that coming from pregnancies carrying fetuses with
chromosomal abnormalities facilitated the detection of panels of potential
biomarkers for prenatal detection of fetal
aneuploidies. Candidate
biomarkers for the early prediction of preeclampsis are also available, while four
biomarkers (
defensins-2 and -1,
calgranulin-C, and
calgranulin-A), which were called the "MR score", can quickly and accurately detect potentially dangerous
infections and predict
premature birth. Researchers remain hopeful that proteomic studies will allow for the identification of either one
protein marker or of a panel of markers for prenatal detection of fetal
aneuploidies and
pregnancy complications that could be usefully employed for diagnostic purposes or improvement of the current screening methods. For maximum predictive power however,
biomarkers should be selected for further comparative analysis of expression and structural modifications in large numbers of samples from chromosomally normal and abnormal pregnancies obtained from different populations.