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. 2023 Nov 30;24(23):16966.
doi: 10.3390/ijms242316966.

Unveiling Distinct Proteomic Signatures in Complicated Crohn's Disease That Could Predict the Disease Course

Laura A Lucaciu  1 , Radu Seicean  2 , Alina Uifălean  3 , Maria Iacobescu  4 , Cristina A Iuga  3   4 , Andrada Seicean  1   5
Affiliations

Unveiling Distinct Proteomic Signatures in Complicated Crohn's Disease That Could Predict the Disease Course

Laura A Lucaciu et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Crohn's disease (CD) is characterized by a chronic, progressive inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract often leading to complications, such as strictures and fistulae. Currently, there are no validated tools anticipating short- and long-term outcomes at an early stage. This investigation aims to elucidate variations in protein abundance across distinct CD phenotypes with the objective of uncovering potential biomarkers implicated in disease advancement. Serum samples collected from 30 CD patients and 15 healthy age-matched controls (HC) were subjected to depletion of highly abundant proteins and to a label-free mass spectrometry analysis. Twenty-four proteins were shown to be significantly different when comparing CD with HC. Of these, WD repeat-containing protein 31 (WDR31), and proteins involved in the acute inflammatory response, leucine-rich alpha-2-glycoprotein (LRG1) and serum amyloid A1 (SAA1), were more abundant in the aggressive subgroup. Against standard biomarkers, a positive correlation between SAA1 and WDR31 and C-reactive protein (CRP) was found. In this study, a unique serum biomarker panel for aggressive CD was identified, which could aid in predicting the disease course.

Keywords: Crohn’s disease; biomarkers; disease progression; inflammatory bowel diseases; mass-spectrometry analysis; proteomics; stricturing behavior.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sampling group clustering by the serum proteome of the CD and HC (A) and the B1, B2B3, and HC group (B).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Volcano plot showing the significantly different serum proteins among the CD and HC groups (A). The VIP score plot corresponding to the PLS-DA analysis interrogating the serum proteome alterations in the stricturing and penetrating Crohn’s disease phenotypes (B).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Proteins showing discriminatory potential between the Crohn’s disease phenotypes based on AUC analysis. Red dot value = cut-off value (log10-normalized) with highest specificity, sensibility in brackets, AUC = Area Under the Curve, 95% confidence band, CI = confidence interval.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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