Plasma proteome of severe acute respiratory syndrome analyzed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry

doi:10.1073/pnas.0407992101

Plasma proteome of severe acute respiratory syndrome analyzed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry

^*School of Dentistry, ^§Department of Pathology, and ^¶Department of Internal Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, National Defense University, Taipei 114, Taiwan; ^‡Institute of Chemistry and ^∥Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan; and ^**The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037

Contributed by Chi-Huey Wong, October 27, 2004

Abstract

We have investigated the plasma proteome by using 2D gel electrophoresis and MS from patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). A complete proteomic analysis was performed on four patients with SARS in different time courses, and a total of 38 differential spots were selected for protein identification. Most of the proteins identified are acute phase proteins, and their presence represents the consequence of serial cascades initiated by SARS-coronavirus infection. There are several proteins that have never been identified in plasma before using 2D gel electrophoresis, among which peroxiredoxin II was chosen for further study by analyzing additional 20 plasma samples from patients with probable and suspected SARS and patients with fever, respectively. The results showed that the level of plasma peroxiredoxin II in patients with SARS is significantly high and could be secreted by T cells. Taken together, our findings indicate that active innate immune responses, along with the oxidation-associated injuries, may play a major role in the pathogenesis of SARS.

Footnotes

↵ † To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: jhc.ndmc{at}msa.hinet.net or yjchen{at}chem.sinica.edu.tw.
Author contributions: J.-H.C., C.-H.W., and Y.-J.C. designed research; J.-H.C., Y.-W.C., S.-C.H., and K.-Y.C. performed research; J.-H.C., C.-W.Y., T.-S.C., and Y.-J.C. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; J.-H.C., Y.-W.C., C.-W.Y., T.-S.C., S.-C.H., K.-Y.C., A.C., F.-Y.C., C.-H.W., and Y.-J.C. analyzed data; and J.-H.C., Y.-W.C., C.-H.W., and Y.-J.C. wrote the paper.
Abbreviations: APP, acute phase protein; CoV, coronavirus; LC, liquid chromatography; MS/MS, tandem MS; SAA, serum amyloid A; SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome; 2DE, 2D electrophoresis.