Patent ID: 8628912

Claim:
A method of identifying a subject having, or at risk of developing obesity, and/or hypertension, the method comprising: determining the level of angiotensinogen or apolipoprotein C1 (i) in a test biological sample obtained from the subject and (ii) in a control biological sample of like tissue derivation from a control subject not having, or at risk of developing, obesity, and/or hypertension wherein the step of determining the level of angiotensinogen or apolipoprotein C1 in the test plasma sample and in the control plasma sample comprises: immuno-depleting albumin, IgG, IgA, transferrin, antitrypsin, and haptoglobin (i) from the test plasma sample, resulting in a depleted test plasma sample, and (ii) from the control plasma sample, resulting in a depleted control plasma sample; separating (i) the depleted test plasma sample into a first fraction comprising glycosylated polypeptides and a second fraction comprising nonglycosylated polypeptides, and (ii) the depleted control plasma sample into a third fraction comprising glycosylated polypeptides and a fourth fraction comprising non-glycosylated polypeptides; digesting with trypsin (i) the non-glycosylated polypeptides in the second fraction, resulting in a test tryptic digest, and (ii) the non-glycosylated polypeptides in the fourth fraction, resulting in a control tryptic digest; subjecting to liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS) (i) the test tryptic digest, resulting in a test polypeptide profile, and (ii) the control tryptic digest, resulting in a control polypeptide profile; and comparing the level of angiotensinogen or apolipoprotein C1 in the test sample and in the control sample, wherein an increased level of angiotensinogen or apolipoprotein C1 in the test sample relative to the control sample is indicative that the subject has, or is at risk of developing obesity, and/or hypertension.