A novel strategy using MASCOT Distiller for analysis of cleavable isotope-coded affinity tag data to quantify protein changes in plasma

A novel strategy consisting of cleavable Isotope‐Coded Affinity Tag (cICAT) combined with MASCOT Distiller was evaluated as a tool for the quantification of proteins in ‘abnormal’ patient plasma, prepared by pooling samples from patients with acute stroke. Quantification of all light and heavy cICAT‐labelled peptide ion pairs was obtained using MASCOT Distiller combined with a proprietary software. Peptides displaying differences were selected for identification by MS. These preliminary results show the promise of our approach to identify potential biomarkers.