Proteome analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage fluids reveals host and fungal proteins highly expressed during invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in mice and humans

Abstract

Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is a severe infection that is difficult to diagnose due to the ubiquitous presence of fungal spores, the underlying diseases of risk patients, and limitations of currently available markers. In this study, we performed a comprehensive liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)-based identification of host and fungal proteins expressed during IPA in mice and humans. The proteomic analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage samples of individual IPA and control cases allowed the description of common host factors that had significantly increased abundance in both infected animals and IPA patients compared to their controls. Although increased levels of these individual host proteins might not be sufficient to distinguish bacterial from fungal infection, a combination of these markers might be beneficial to improve diagnosis. We also identified 16 fungal proteins that were specifically detected during infection and may be valuable candidates for biomarker evaluation.

Proteomic Analysis of Humoral Immune Components in Bronchoalveolar Lavage of Patients Infected or Colonized by Aspergillus fumigatus

“…A recent proteome analysis of BALF was mainly focused on host and fungal protein highly expressed during IPA, but not absent/significantly less abundant proteins ( 20 ). Nevertheless, among 30 proteins found significantly increased in IPA patients in their study, our data finds agreement for 16 proteins.…”

Developments in Fungal Serology

“…While chitosanase CsnB has been studied as a potential antigen for aspergillosis, clinical levels of anti-CsnB IgG antibodies were not useful for the diagnosis of IA [87]. Recent proteome analysis of BAL fluid from a murine model and clinical cases of IA identified 11 proteins that, while not specific for IA, when found in combination may be a useful diagnostic indication of IA [88].…”

Advances in experimental and computational methodologies for the study of microbial-surface interactions at different omics levels

“…Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis caused by A. fumigatus was recently studied in human BALF and mouse models using extraction of proteins via eFASP ( Erde et al, 2014 ). This analysis detected candidate biomarkers for the infection ( Machata et al, 2020 ). Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease in which pathogens play a major role in the disease progression.…”