antioxidants Article In-Depth AGE and ALE Profiling of Human Albumin in Heart Failure: Ex Vivo Studies Alessandra Altomare 1,*,† , Giovanna Baron 1,† , Marta Balbinot 1, Alessandro Pedretti 1 , Beatrice Zoanni 2, Maura Brioschi 2, Piergiuseppe Agostoni 2,3, Marina Carini 1, Cristina Banfi 2 and Giancarlo Aldini 1 1 Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences (DISFARM), Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Mangiagalli 25, 20133 Milan, Italy;
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[email protected] (G.A.) 2 Centro Cardiologico Monzino, IRCCS, Via Parea 4, 20138 Milan, Italy;
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[email protected] (P.A.); cristina.banfi@cardiologicomonzino.it (C.B.) 3 Dipartimento di Scienze Cliniche e di Comunità, Sezione Cardiovascolare, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Festa del Perdono 7, 20122 Milan, Italy * Correspondence:
[email protected] † These Authors equally contributed to the work. Abstract: Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) and advanced lipoxidation end-products (ALEs), particularly carboxymethyl-lysine (CML), have been largely proposed as factors involved in the establishment and progression of heart failure (HF). Despite this evidence, the current literature lacks the comprehensive identification and characterization of the plasma AGEs/ALEs involved in HF (untargeted approach). This work provides the first ex vivo high-resolution mass spectrometry Citation: Altomare, A.; Baron, G.; (HR-MS) profiling of AGEs/ALEs occurring in human serum albumin (HSA), the most abundant Balbinot, M.; Pedretti, A.; Zoanni, B.; protein in plasma, characterized by several nucleophilic sites and thus representing the main protein Brioschi, M.; Agostoni, P.; Carini, M.; substrate for AGE/ALE formation.