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Peptide profiles change significantly with aging and peptide biomarkers discovered in adult patients may not be suitable for the evaluation of pediatric patients. The present study was designed to explore alterations in the serum peptidome profile of pediatric patients with IgA nephropathy (IgAN). A total of 17 children diagnosed with IgAN were recruited as the experimental group, 11 sex-matched healthy children were recruited as a healthy control group and 18 sex-matched children with other glomerular diseases were recruited as a disease control group. Serum peptides of each subject were enriched and analyzed by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry and the subsequently identified IgAN-specific peptides were evaluated using Gene Ontology enrichment and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis. Subsequently, the function of the IgAN-specific peptides was predicted via sequence comparison with other known functional bioactive peptides. A total of 123 peptides with a fold change >2 (P<0.05) and 48 peptides with a fold change >5 (P<0.05) were identified to be differentially expressed between the pediatric IgAN group and the two other groups. Consequently, two putative peptides that may have bioactive effects in the pathogenesis of IgAN in pediatric patients were identified. The serum peptidome profile of pediatric patients with IgAN was significantly different from the disease control group and the healthy control group. These differentially expressed peptides may serve as biomarkers for the minimally invasive diagnosis of pediatric patients with IgAN. Additionally, the potential bioactive peptides specifically expressed in pediatric IgAN patients that were identified in this study may lay a foundation for exploring new therapies for IgAN, such as the creation of novel peptide drugs.

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