Glossary
Concise definitions of the core terms in albuminomics. Each links to a fuller page where one exists.
Albuminomics — the study of the modified forms of human serum albumin and their use as functional and structural biomarkers. See What is albuminomics?.
Albuminome — the complete population of albumin proteoforms circulating in blood, together with the molecules albumin carries.
Proteoform — a specific molecular form of a protein arising from a particular combination of modifications (e.g. cysteinylated + doubly glycated albumin is one proteoform).
HSA — human serum albumin, the most abundant plasma protein (~35–50 g/L), synthesised only by the liver.
Isoform (in this context) — used interchangeably with proteoform for the mass-resolved modified forms of albumin (native, HSA-DA, HSA+CYS, HSA+GLYC, etc.).
PTM — post-translational modification; a chemical change to a protein after synthesis. Key albumin PTMs: Cysteinylation, Glycation, Oxidation, Carbonylation, and N-/C-terminal truncation.
Cys34 — the single free cysteine thiol of albumin, its most reactive site and main redox sensor. See Cysteinylation.
HMA / HNA1 / HNA2 — the classical redox fractions of albumin: mercaptalbumin (reduced Cys34), and non-mercaptalbumin-1 and -2 (reversibly and irreversibly oxidised). See Oxidation.
Effective albumin (eAlb) — the fraction of total albumin that remains structurally and functionally intact; a better prognostic marker than total albumin. See effective albumin.
SEB test — the Serum Enhanced Binding test; a functional assay measuring albumin’s binding capacity by ICP-MS.
Top-down proteomics — analysing intact proteins by mass spectrometry (rather than digesting them to peptides), preserving the full combination of modifications.
Absolute quantification — measuring the true concentration (g/L) of each isoform; achieved here by internal calibration with equine myoglobin.
Exchangeable copper (CuEXC) / REC — the labile copper pool bound to albumin; relative exchangeable copper (REC = CuEXC / total copper) is a biomarker for Wilson disease, and the historical root of the SEB lineage.
FIB-4 — a widely used non-invasive fibrosis score; albuminomics staging outperforms it and resolves its large indeterminate “grey zone.”
MASH / ALD — metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis and alcohol-related liver disease; two major, treatment-divergent causes of chronic liver disease that albuminomics aims to distinguish.
ALBOM — the study validating HSA isoform profiling for multi-class liver-fibrosis staging.
MALAHBAR — the ongoing multicentric validation study (NCT06318949; 560+ patients, 8 French university hospitals).