Peptidomic Identification of Serum Peptides Diagnosing Preeclampsia

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 8; no. 6; p. e65571
• Main Authors: Wen, Qiaojun, Liu, Linda Y, Yang, Ting, Alev, Cantas, Wu, Shuaibin, Stevenson, David K, Sheng, Guojun, Butte, Atul J, Ling, Xuefeng B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 19.06.2013; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Acids; Adult; alpha 1-Antitrypsin - chemistry; Analysis; Apolipoprotein L1; Apolipoproteins; Apolipoproteins - chemistry; Biology; Biomarkers; Biomarkers - blood; Blood Proteins - chemistry; Chromatography; Chromatography, Liquid - methods; Developmental biology; Differential diagnosis; Ethnicity; Female; Fibrin; Fibrinogen; Gene expression; Glycoproteins - chemistry; Growth factors; Humans; Hypertension; Kininogens; Kininogens - chemistry; Lipoproteins, HDL - chemistry; Liquid chromatography; Mass spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; Medical diagnosis; Medicine; Pediatrics; Peptide Fragments - blood; Peptides; Placenta; Pre-eclampsia; Pre-Eclampsia - blood; Pre-Eclampsia - diagnosis; Preeclampsia; Pregnancy; Pregnant women; Proteinase Inhibitory Proteins, Secretory - chemistry; Proteins; Scientific imaging; Sensitivity; Sensitivity and Specificity; Surgery; Tandem Mass Spectrometry - methods; Thymosin - chemistry; Training; Trypsin; Trypsin inhibitors; Urine; Womens health; Young Adult; United States > US; California
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0065571

We sought to identify serological markers capable of diagnosing preeclampsia (PE). We performed serum peptide analysis (liquid chromatography mass spectrometry) of 62 unique samples from 31 PE patients and 31 healthy pregnant controls, with two-thirds used as a training set and the other third as a testing set. Differential serum peptide profiling identified 52 significant serum peptides, and a 19-peptide panel collectively discriminating PE in training sets (n = 21 PE, n = 21 control; specificity = 85.7% and sensitivity = 100%) and testing sets (n = 10 PE, n = 10 control; specificity = 80% and sensitivity = 100%). The panel peptides were derived from 6 different protein precursors: 13 from fibrinogen alpha (FGA), 1 from alpha-1-antitrypsin (A1AT), 1 from apolipoprotein L1 (APO-L1), 1 from inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor heavy chain H4 (ITIH4), 2 from kininogen-1 (KNG1), and 1 from thymosin beta-4 (TMSB4). We concluded that serum peptides can accurately discriminate active PE. Measurement of a 19-peptide panel could be performed quickly and in a quantitative mass spectrometric platform available in clinical laboratories. This serum peptide panel quantification could provide clinical utility in predicting PE or differential diagnosis of PE from confounding chronic hypertension.