Screening inflammatory protein biomarkers on premature infants with necrotizing enterocolitis

• Published in: Inflammation research Vol. 72; no. 4; pp. 757 - 768
• Main Authors: Dong, Huifang, Zhang, Lingling, Li, Bingbing, Li, Jing, Chen, Yanshan, Richard, Seidu A., Xu, Yiran, Zhu, Changlian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.04.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Allergology; Biomarker; Biomarkers; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; CCL20 protein; Cell Biology; cells; cytokines; Dermatology; Differential diagnosis; Enterocolitis; Enterocolitis, Necrotizing - diagnosis; Enterocolitis, Necrotizing - metabolism; expression; Female; Gastrointestinal diseases; Humans; immunity; Immunology; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Infant, Premature; Infants; Inflammation; Interleukin 24; Interleukin 8; Male; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; mortality; Necrosis; Necrotizing enterocolitis; Neonates; Neurology; Neurosciences; Neurovetenskaper; nutrition; OLINK; Original Research Paper; Patient Acuity; Pharmacology/Toxicology; Premature babies; Premature birth; preterm infants; Proteins; Proteomics; Rheumatology; Sepsis; Stromelysin 2; Thymic stromal lymphopoietin; tnf-alpha; trends; Necrotizing enterocolitis; Biomarker; Inflammation; OLINK; Proteomics
• ISSN: 1023-3830; 1420-908X; 1420-908X
• DOI: 10.1007/s00011-023-01702-6

Objective This study aimed to explore potential inflammatory biomarkers for early prediction of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in premature infants. Methods Plasma samples were collected from premature infants with NEC ( n  = 30), sepsis ( n  = 29), and controls without infection ( n  = 29). The 92 inflammatory-related proteins were assessed via high-throughput OLINK proteomics platform . Results There were 11 inflammatory proteins that significate differences ( p  < 0.05) among NEC, sepsis and control preterm infants, which include IL-8, TRAIL, IL-24, MMP-10, CCL20, CXCL1, OPG, TSLP, MCP-4, TNFSF14 and LIF. A combination of these 11 proteins could serve as differential diagnosis between NEC and control infants (AUC = 0.972), or between NEC and sepsis infants (AUC = 0.881). Furthermore, the combination of IL-8, OPG, MCP-4, IL-24, LIF and CCL20 could distinguish Stage II and III of NEC (AUC = 0.977). Further analysis showed the combination of IL-8, IL-24 and CCL20 have the best prediction value for NEC and control (AUC = 0.947), NEC and sepsis (AUC = 0.838) and different severity of NEC (AUC = 0.842). Conclusion Inflammatory proteins were different expressed in premature infants with NEC compared with controls or sepsis. Combining these proteins provide a higher diagnostic potential for preterm NEC infants.