Exploration of the serum differential biomarkers for osteoarticular tuberculosis based on matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry

Abstract

Objective Toinvestigatestatistically significant peptide peaks as biomarkersto diagnose osteoarticular tuberculosis, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) was applied to identify the characteristic fingerprint among the serum of patients with osteoarticular tuberculosis, rheumatoid arthritis and healthy adults. Methods Clinical Study. Serum samples of untreatedpatients with osteoarticular tuberculosis and rheumatoid arthritis were collected from August 2018 to December 2018, and serum samples of healthy adults from physical examination were collected as control. After analysis with MALDI-TOF MS, the serum peptide fingerprint datawas imported into software, and protein polypeptide peaks with obvious differences were screened to establish diagnostic models. Results Established the diagnostic model of osteoarticular tuberculosis and healthy adults with m/z 2 943.9, 5 929.6, 7 615.4 and 9 033.8 as differential protein polypeptides, the diagnostic model of osteoarticular tuberculosis and rheumatoid arthritis with m/z 4 195.6, 5 847.6, 5 929.6 and 7 748.6 as differential protein polypeptides. To these two models, the sensitivity were 95.00% and 97.50%, respectively. The specificity were 85.71% and 88.46%, respectively. The accuracy rates were 89.58% and 92.39%, respectively. The AUC value of ROC curves were 0.885 9 and 0.870 9, respectively. Conclusions By mass spectrometry and software analysis, the serum protein polypeptides with statistical difference were found successfully. The related diagnostic modelsarealso established, which has certain reference value for auxiliary diagnosis of osteoarticular tuberculosis. Key words: Tuberculosis, osteoarticular; Arthritis, rheumatoid; Spectrometry, mass, matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization; Peptide mapping; Biomarkers