The Landscape of Proteomic Characteristics of Human Coronary Artery Atherosclerosis

Abstract

Background: To explore the new biomarkers for coronary artery disease detection and improved therapeutic targets, the comprehensive understanding of protein networks and protein expression abundance in coronary artery samples were established by means of LC-MS/MS analysis. Methods: 20 human coronary artery specimens from 2 autopsied adults were employed in the study. The natural history and histological classification of atherosclerotic lesions of the coronary artery samples were analyzed by Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining, and the human coronary arterial proteome and proteomic features was characterized by mass spectrometry analysis. Findings: In the present study, we identified 2135 proteins in the 20 coronary artery segments samples from 2 cases. Combination with the results of Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining of coronary artery samples, a total of 174 proteins, including 4 upregulated proteins and 164 downregulated proteins were obtained which associated with coronary artery disease. And, GO and KEGG enrichment of the differentially expressed proteins shown that the mitochondrial energy metabolism maybe underlying in the occurrence and development of coronary artery atherosclerosis. Interpretation: The human coronary arterial proteome can be considered as a complex network whose architectural characteristics vary considerably as a function of the presence or absence, and histological classification of coronary artery atherosclerosis. The data suggest that the prevention of mitochondrial dysfunction via retrieve the mitochondrial associated proteins expression may be a promising target in coronary artery disease. Funding Statement: This study received support from the National Natural Science Foundations of China (grants 81170180, 30400173, 30971257 and 81970302) and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions. Dr. Enzhi Jia is an Assistant Fellow at the Collaborative Innovation Center for Cardiovascular Disease Translational Medicine. Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest. Ethics Approval Statement: Informed consent from the bereaved family was obtained for the research use only of samples and the autopsy was conducted according to the guideline of the university. The methods were performed in accordance with the approved guidelines, and all experimental protocols were approved by the ethics committee of the Nanjing Medical University and the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University.