Proteomic Analysis of Serum Proteins from Patients with Severe Coronary Artery Calcification

Abstract

Background: Proteomic studies investigating novel molecular markers of coronary artery calcification (CAC) are scarce.This study compared the protein expression in the serum of patients with severe CAC and non-CAC. Methods: The serum from 30 patients with severe CAC and 30 matched-controls were screened by data-independent acquisition(DIA)-based proteomic technology. Bioinformatics analysis tools were used to analyze the underlying molecular mechanisms of the differentially expressed proteins. Candidate proteins were further validated by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in an independent cohort. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to estimate the diagnostic power of the candidate proteins. Results: Among the 110 identified proteins, the expression of 81 was significantly upregulated, whereas 29 proteins were downregulated (fold change ≥1.5; p < 0.05) between patients with and without CAC. Bioinformatics analysis indicated that the differential proteins are involved in complement and coagulation cascades, platelet activation, regulation of actin cytoskeleton, or glycolysis/gluconeogenesis pathways. Further verification showed that serum levels of complement C5 (C5), fibrinogen gamma (FGG), pyruvate kinase isoform M2 (PKM2), and tropomyosin 4 (TPM4) were consistent with the proteomic findings, which could allow discrimination between CAC and non-CAC patients. Conclusions: This study revealed that high serum levels of serum C5, FGG, PKM2, and TPM4 proteins were linked to severe CAC. These proteins may be developed as biomarkers to predict coronary calcification.