Robust detection of P. aeruginosa and S. aureus acute lung infections by secondary electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (SESI-MS) breathprinting: from initial infection to clearance

• Published in: Journal of breath research Vol. 7; no. 3; p. 037106
• Main Authors: Zhu, Jiangjiang, Jiménez-Díaz, Jaime, Bean, Heather D, Daphtary, Nirav A, Aliyeva, Minara I, Lundblad, Lennart K A, Hill, Jane E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England IOP Publishing 01.09.2013
• Subjects: Animals; Bacterial infections; Biomarkers - analysis; Breath Tests - methods; Discriminant analysis; disease diagnosis; Disease Models, Animal; Humans; Ions; lung infection; Male; Mass spectrometry; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Pseudomonas aeruginosa - isolation & purification; Pseudomonas Infections - diagnosis; Pseudomonas Infections - metabolism; Pseudomonas Infections - microbiology; Respiratory Tract Infections - diagnosis; Respiratory Tract Infections - metabolism; Respiratory Tract Infections - microbiology; Scientific imaging; SESI-MS; Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization - methods; Staphylococcal Infections - diagnosis; Staphylococcal Infections - metabolism; Staphylococcal Infections - microbiology; Staphylococcus aureus - isolation & purification; Staphylococcus infections
• ISSN: 1752-7155; 1752-7163
• DOI: 10.1088/1752-7155/7/3/037106

Before breath-based diagnostics for lung infections can be implemented in the clinic, it is necessary to understand how the breath volatiles change during the course of infection, and ideally, to identify a core set of breath markers that can be used to diagnose the pathogen at any point during the infection. In the study presented here, we use secondary electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (SESI-MS) to characterize the breathprint of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus lung infections in a murine model over a period of 120 h, with a total of 86 mice in the study. Using partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) to evaluate the time-course data, we were able to show that SESI-MS breathprinting can be used to robustly classify acute P. aeruginosa and S. aureus mouse lung infections at any time during the 120 h infection clearance process. The variable importance plot from PLS indicates that multiple peaks from the SESI-MS breathprints are required for discriminating the bacterial infections. Therefore, by utilizing the entire breathprint rather than single biomarkers, infectious agents can be diagnosed by SESI-MS independent of when during the infection breath is tested.