An Aptamer-Based Proteomic Analysis of Plasma from Cats ( Felis catus ) with Clinical Feline Infectious Peritonitis

• Published in: Viruses Vol. 16; no. 1; p. 141
• Main Authors: Curtis, Benjamin E, Abdo, Zaid, Graham, Barbara, LaVoy, Alora, Evans, Samantha J M, Santangelo, Kelly, Dean, Gregg A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.01.2024; MDPI
• Subjects: Animals; Anticoagulants; Antigen Presentation; Antiviral agents; Apoptosis; Aptamers; Blood; Blood plasma; Blood Proteins; Cats; Coronavirus, Feline; Coronaviruses; Domestic animals; enrichment; Feces; Feline Infectious Peritonitis; FIP; Genes; Health aspects; Immune response; Infections; Infectious diseases; Innate immunity; Kinases; Laboratories; Medical examination; Methods; Neurological diseases; Nucleic acid aptamers; Oligonucleotides; Pathology; pathway analysis; Peritonitis; Plasma; protein profile; Proteins; Proteomics; Software; Vasculitis; Viral infections; United States; United States > US; enrichment; protein profile; proteomics; FIP; pathway analysis; feline infectious peritonitis
• ISSN: 1999-4915; 1999-4915
• DOI: 10.3390/v16010141

Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is a systemic disease manifestation of feline coronavirus (FCoV) and is the most important cause of infectious disease-related deaths in domestic cats. FIP has a variable clinical manifestation but is most often characterized by widespread vasculitis with visceral involvement and/or neurological disease that is typically fatal in the absence of antiviral therapy. Using an aptamer-based proteomics assay, we analyzed the plasma protein profiles of cats who were naturally infected with FIP (n = 19) in comparison to the plasma protein profiles of cats who were clinically healthy and negative for FCoV (n = 17) and cats who were positive for the enteric form of FCoV (n = 9). We identified 442 proteins that were significantly differentiable; in total, 219 increased and 223 decreased in FIP plasma versus clinically healthy cat plasma. Pathway enrichment and associated analyses showed that differentiable proteins were related to immune system processes, including the innate immune response, cytokine signaling, and antigen presentation, as well as apoptosis and vascular integrity. The relevance of these findings is discussed in the context of previous studies. While these results have the potential to inform diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventative investigations, they represent only a first step, and will require further validation.