Proteomics of exhaled breath condensate in lung cancer and controls using data-independent acquisition (DIA): a pilot study.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide and has a poor prognosis. To develop a non-invasive method for lung cancer early detection, exhaled breath condensate (EBC) was explored in this study. EBC samples were collected from lung cancer patients (n=10) and healthy controls (n=10), and a proteomic study was performed to identify potential biomarkers. A data-independent acquisition (DIA) approach was applied for the EBC proteomics, and 1151 proteins were identified. Compared to the control group, ten proteins were significantly upregulated in the lung cancer group. The GO analysis showed these proteins mostly located in the organelle, and the KEGG results revealed that the proteins were mainly related to organismal systems and human disease. And S100A11, ANXA1, ENO1, and FABP5 might play a vital role in the EBC proteome. In summary, we demonstrated that the DIA-based quantification method was efficient in performing proteomic analysis in individual EBC samples, and some of the proteins might be novel biomarkers for lung cancer.